Gill Tract Occupiers Vow New Occupation Saturday

The Occupy the Farm urban-farming activists who occupied the UC-owned Gill Tract for three weeks a year ago are returning to the tract Saturday, apparently intending to occupy a different part of property.

On its website, the group calls for supporters to meet at Albany City Hall at noon and to "Plant the Farm and Occupy!" 

Albany City Hall is across the street from the portion of the Gill Tract where UC grows crops for agricultural research.

UC Berkeley officials issued a "Dear Neighbors" letter Thursday saying campus personnel plan to be on hand throughout the day Saturday with City of Albany representatives "to monitor the situation and ensure your safety and access to your activities."

It's not clear where an attempted occupation would occur. The term "Gill Tract" is not precise and is sometimes used to refer to the cultivated agricultural plot where UC researchers grow crops, sometimes to a larger piece of land that includes the growing plot and fallow land to the south, and sometimes to the entire 108-acre tract that UC bought from the Gill family in 1928 and which today also includes the University Village student housing complex. 

The Occupy the Farm website says, "The southern portion of the Gill Tract Farm that is under threat has not been cultivated for years, but the soil remains some of the most fertile in the bioregion." The site then refers to Saturday's event as an "action that manifests the highest and best use of the Gill Tract farmland!"

An Occupy the Farm flyer for the event begins with: "You're Invited to a Good Old Land Occupation." It also says, "Liberate the Land!" and "Celebration! Skill Share! Work Party! Campout!"

The campus statement says UC recently learned that the activists "are planning a 'short-form' occupation of university property a few blocks south of our Gill Tract agricultural research fields."

"According to their publicity materials," the UC statement says, "the group is now choosing to target a parcel of land that formerly housed University Village apartments, and where a new grocery store and senior housing is planned."

"The university will not allow a permanent encampment on our property," the university's letter said.

The UC document is signed by UC Berkeley's Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, George Breslauer, and the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, John Wilton. (The full letter is attached to this article.)

Last year's occupation took place in the main planting field used by UC researchers. The entire UC property acquired from the Gill family includes the agricultural research plot, the University Village housing complex for graduate student families, Little League fields and parcels of open space.

Two of the unoccupied parcels, flanking Monroe Street on the west side of San Pablo Avenue, are slated for senior housing and a grocery-retail complex in a UC development plan that has been debated and revised over a period of years. Its latest version calls for a Sprouts Farmers Market.

Occupy the Farm objects in part to a long-range UC Master Plan to convert the agricultural tract to recreational and open space. The university has said in the past that it "is open to further discussions with the community about implementation of the Master Plan on this portion of the property." 

------------------------

Don't miss any news from Berkeley Patch. Get the day's headlines and events – plus any breaking news alerts – by subscribing to the Berkeley Patch email newsletter.