State finance officials give tentative OK to UC Merced growth plans

UC Merced won a small victory this week when the state Department of Finance gave preliminary approval to plans for the second phase of expansion.

In a letter to members of the state Assembly Budget and Senate Budget and Fiscal Review committees, the department gave tentative endorsement of the $1.14 billion 2020 Project to double the size of UC Merced and accommodate up to 10,000 students.

“Finance has reviewed UC’s calculations and the underlying assumptions and believes it is reasonable,” says a letter released Wednesday.

Gov. Jerry Brown is not expected to weigh in officially until April 1, but the nod from the department comes in a decidedly different tone than a report questioning many of the school’s plans earlier this month from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office.

And UC Merced officials aren’t exactly spiking the football yet.

“Our 2020 Project has received preliminary approval from the Department of Finance, and that is welcome news,” spokesman James Leonard said Friday. “Various Senate and Assembly committees now have an opportunity to provide input on the project. By statute, the DOF cannot make a final approval until April, and we look forward to receiving that approval.”

The department’s nod gives preliminary approval to a plan that is untried in the country. The UC’s “public-private” partnership would use a single, long-term contract with one development team.

The university is looking to have enough classrooms, laboratories, dormitories and other spaces to accommodate up to 10,000 students by 2020, up from its current enrollment of 6,685 undergraduate and graduate students.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan analyst, in a report Feb. 10 said the university’s expansion plan appears to be less flexible and harder to predict than more traditional methods. To assess the hurdles, the report recommended the state Legislature immediately begin reviewing plans, and schedule hearings in late February and early March.

University and city leaders brushed off those concerns earlier this month, saying they were confident the expansion will go forward without a hitch.

Officials have said many of the concerns addressed in the Legislative Analyst’s Office report were also concerns of the Board of Regents, which ultimately approved the plans in December.

The project is expected to create 10,800 construction jobs in the region and 12,600 statewide, according to officials. They estimate the work will pour $1.9 billion into the regional economy and $2.4 billion across the state.

Three major development teams qualified last year to be invited to bid on the project, which will add 919,000 square feet to campus facilities. Construction is set to begin in summer 2016. The first new facilities are expected be usable in 2018; the project could be complete as early as 2020.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 6:42 PM with the headline "State finance officials give tentative OK to UC Merced growth plans."