SAN DIEGO — Leaders from UC San Diego held a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday morning to mark the construction of Pepper Canyon West Living and Learning Neighborhood. The university says the construction will provide more than 1,300 single-occupancy rooms to transfer and upper-division undergraduate students when it opens in the fall of 2024.
UC San Diego received $100 million in state funding for the project as part of a new Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program providing one-time grants for projects to support increased California resident enrollment.
At the end of 2021, the University of California system submitted $600 million in projects for consideration to the new state grant program, including the proposal from UC San Diego for the Pepper Canyon West Living and Learning Neighborhood. In March, California's Department of Finance recommended that UC San Diego receive the funding. The Legislature and Governor Newsom approved it in June as part of the state budget process.
According to university leaders, the “the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office developed a methodology to allocate the financing savings due to the $100 million grant, $5 million annually, towards housing grants for eligible California undergraduate students living on campus. For example, the application of grant funds will lower housing rates to up to 55% below market for 1,100 low-income California resident students.”
The project is located in the interior of campus, adjacent to the Central Campus station of the UC San Diego Blue Line trolley. The 580,500-square-foot project features two 22- and 23-story towers connected to five-story buildings with outdoor terrace seating along with retail, dining, and open spaces in two large courtyards and access to canyon trails.
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