A draft report examining the potential environmental impacts of a 75-room hotel and conference center and new academic building on the UC Davis campus is now available for public review.

The Draft Focused Tiered Environmental Impact Report addresses issues related to traffic and parking, noise, and the potential for physical impacts to downtown Davis. A public hearing to receive testimony as part of the formal record on the project's Draft EIR will be held 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at the University Club on campus.

Copies of the report can be viewed at the reserve reading room of UC Davis' Shields Library, the Davis branch of the Yolo County Library and the Vacaville Public Library in Vacaville.

The public notice and draft EIR for the project are available online at http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview/. Written comments on the Draft EIR may be submitted through Feb. 4 to the UC Davis Office of Resource Management and Planning.

The proposed facilities include:

* a conference center and hotel, including 75 guest rooms in a 40,000-square-foot hotel, 75,000 square feet conference, meeting and office and space, one restaurant and pub, and 100 on-site parking spaces;

* and, a Graduate School of Management building with 45,000 square feet of offices and meeting space for academic offices and classrooms, and university relations offices.

Plans call for the hotel and conference center and academic building to be located on five acres in the central campus south of the University Club and the environmental horticulture buildings and east of the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Arts, now under construction.

The conference center and hotel are expected to provide a venue for state, national and international academic conferences on campus, and an opportunity for the university to host visitors, alumni and the business community.

Major objectives of the project are to enhance UC Davis' role as a regional academic and arts center and meeting place, in conjunction with the Mondavi Center and Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, and to ensure that the conference center and hotel are financially viable operations.

The new academic building will provide needed space and access for the Graduate School of Management, and will consolidate office space for a major portion of the Office of University Relations.