Vice President Al Gore has promised to speed environmental review of the proposed University of California campus near Merced. Ironically, the likely "Smart Growth" candidate for president in 2000 has sided with a project proposed on rangeland outside Merced's earlier-adopted urban growth boundaries which contains habitat for endangered species. The campus and "university community" would rise on the western edge of a large vernal pool grassland, which is home to fairy shrimp — a federally listed endangered species — and other rare plants and animals, said Steven Johnson, director of stewardship and science in California for The Nature Conservancy. "California is probably the last place on the planet with remaining vernal pool habitat," he said. Still, after meeting with Merced-area politicians, teachers and children in early April, Gore announced formation of a task force to expedite federal review of the tenth UC campus and a new town for 31,500 people that would abut UC Merced. The vice president's announcement came at the request of Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres. Condit's chief of staff, Mike Lynch, insisted the task force will serve only as a clearinghouse and is not an effort to circumvent environmental regulations. The task force will streamline the review process, coordinate with a proposed state implementation team and work with local stakeholders, he said. UC Merced will be the first University of California campus built from scratch in more than 30 years — meaning it will be the first new campus subject to the California Environmental Quality Act, the federal Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and other laws that have come to play an important role in shaping urban growth. However, UC has gained experience with CEQA and other regulations in recent years during hard-fought battles over "long-range development plans" to allow expansion of Berkeley, Davis, UCLA and other campuses. "I really want to get away from any thoughts that we want to get around the system, because that is not our strategy," said Roger Samuelsen, UCM chief of staff and director of administration. "Our approach is to work within the regulatory environment and go about this in the most responsible, environmentally sensitive and economical way." Samuelsen and others at UC admit CEQA will lengthen the process, but he does not anticipate a need for legislative assistance. Still, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, during a regents meeting in March, made clear he wants UC Merced built quickly, and he suggested he would back legislation to help the project clear environmental hurdles if necessary. In 1995, university regents chose the 10,400-acre site near Lake Yosemite, six miles northeast of Merced, over competing "greenfield" sites in Madera and Fresno counties. The Lake Yosemite site's relative proximity to urban areas, the availability of water, the location in depressed Merced County and the landowners' willingness to donate 2,000 acres for the actual campus were factors. The university now stands as a symbol of hope in Merced, where planners otherwise predicted a doubling of the population within 20 years despite continued economic woes. Recently, representatives of UC, the city and county of Merced, the Merced Irrigation District, and the Virginia Smith and Cyril Smith trusts (which owns the land) completed a year-long collaborative planning process to settle fundamental issues. Their concept plan calls for a core campus on 200 acres on the eastern edge of the site, surrounded by an ancillary campus of 1,800 acres for up to 25,000 students and 6,600 faculty and staff members. West and south of the campus would be a university community with 31,500 residents and 8,500 jobs, covering another 3,000 acres. That would leave 5,400 acres — about half the site — for open space, parks and environmental mitigation. Merced County now is processing a specific plan for the private areas while UC creates a long-range development plan for the campus itself. But two major issues remain: preventing urban sprawl from covering the area's prime farmland, and crafting an environmental mitigation plan, especially for vernal pools, that satisfies state and federal regulators. "It's intuitive that in this location, you would not have a town but for the university," said Brian Boxer, vice president of EIP Associates in Sacramento, which assisted UC with conceptual planning. The city and county have already expanded their urban growth boundaries to accommodate UCM. Now, the county is trying to create regulatory mechanisms to prevent speculative development that sprawls around the campus and planned community, Merced County Planning and Community Development Director Robert E. Smith said. Marsh Pitman, conservation chair for the local Sierra Club group, said a tightly contained new town that does not rely on the automobile is important. "The implications go far beyond Merced County or San Joaquin Valley or even the state, as the agricultural production in this valley is so important to the nation," Pitman said. Samuelsen, of UC, recognizes the issue. "I think it's in all our best interests to protect agricultural land as best we can," he said. "We worked very hard to avoid prime agricultural land in choosing this site." Interestingly, the vernal pool issue has forced the campus and most of the new town to the 17-square-mile site's eastern side, which is farther yet from Merced. Vernal pools are small depressions in the landscape, underlain by an impermeable layer of earth, that become wetlands during the rainy season. Vernal pools are unique to the Central Valley and are so important that The Nature Conservancy holds a 5,000-acre conservation easement on the 13,500-acre Flying M Ranch, next to the UCM site, to protect the seasonal wetlands. To build the campus, UC must obtain wetland fill permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and special "incidental take" permits from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act. As mitigation, UC may undertake a habitat conservation plan, Samuelsen said. Johnson said The Nature Conservancy is encouraging UC to examine the entire vernal pool complex and to work with neighboring landowners on conservation easements. Johnson believes UC could design an environmentally friendly campus and the new town could develop in a compact manner that is sensitive to fragile habitat. UC planners talk of using the area's wetlands as "outdoor classrooms." While mainstream environmentalists believe UC has good intentions — UC has already forged ties with Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks — the political pressure to build quickly is strong. To meet the stated goal of opening the campus to 5,000 students in fall of 2005, preliminary construction must begin in 2001, said EIP's Boxer. That schedule would require a fast-track environmental review. Contacts: Roger Samuelsen, University of California Office of the President, (510) 987-9554. Steven Johnson, The Nature Conservancy, (415) 281-0443. Roger Smith, Merced County Planning and Community Development Department, (209) 385-7654. Marsh Pitman, Merced Group of the Tehipite Chapter, Sierra Club, (209) 723-2986. Brian Boxer, EIP Associates, (916) 325-4800.