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Rick Young will continue battling the university over plans to build a parking structure on the Underhill lot – but he probably won’t be making his point by camping there in the near future. 

Arrested three times for refusing to leave the lot, the law student says he is considering a new form of protest. He may put his training to the test and sue the university over its plans for the lot. 

The university wants to build a three-story, 1,000- to 1,400-car parking structure, a dining hall, sports field, and offices on the block bordered by College Avenue, Haste Street, Bowditch Street and Channing Way. 

UC Berkeley has prepared a draft Environmental Impact Report on the project and will release a final EIR after the public comment period ends. Young says his decision to sue the university will depend on what is written in the final report. 

Although the university plans to build nearly 900 units of housing not far from the lot – in what they’re calling the Underhill Area – Young said that is not enough. Housing and not parking should be built at the Underhill lot proper, giving more students the opportunity to walk to campus rather than drive, he said. 

“I feel a moral responsibility not to create global warming,” said Young, who argues that greenhouse emissions, caused by burning fossil fuels, cause global warming and are responsible for floods, death and destruction in equatorial countries. 

On Wednesday, after being arrested May 19 for lodging in public, and May 20 and May 21 for trespassing, Young appeared before Judge Jennie Rhine. 

“The judge said stay off the lot,” Young told the Daily Planet Thursday. “If they arrest me again, they may not let me out until trial.” 

The second-year Boalt Hall law student defied police warnings to stay away from the lot. 

“But a judge’s order is a little more. I may be before the judge later on as a defendant or as a lawyer,’’ he said. 

Young’s goal had been to camp out in the lot until the chancellor agreed to meet with him and discuss the university’s responsibility in reducing greenhouse gasses. 

“From the environmental point of view, UC Berkeley’s incredibly progressive,” Young said. “There are so many individuals interested in global warming. If UC Berkeley will not step forward, who will?” 

In court Wednesday, Young turned down Rhine’s offer to plead guilty to one misdemeanor. “I think that we can get a better deal,” he said. He’ll be back in court at 9:30 a.m. June 21, his 34th birthday. 

Last week, Councilmember Kriss Worthington, asked the City Council to pass a resolution supporting Young’s protest. He had put the item on the consent calendar, where noncontroversial resolutions are approved without discussion. However, Mayor Shirley Dean “pulled” the item, which means it will be discussed at a future council meeting. 

Young isn’t the only protester picked up by police at the lot. On Saturday morning, about 4 a.m., Ryan Salisbury, a junior in computer science at the university, was arrested for trespassing. Young bailed him out Sunday afternoon. 

Salisbury will be in court June 28 on a single misdemeanor trespassing charge. 

“Housing must take precedent over parking,” Salisbury said, adding that he doesn’t know at this point if he’ll go out and be arrested again to make that point. 

The public comment period on the draft EIR on the Underhill Area Projects continues through June 9. Written comments can be submitted by 5 p.m. that day to the UC Berkeley Physical and Environmental Planning Office, Room 1, in the A&E Building. 

Information on Young and Salisbury is at www.geocities.com/rickisyoung.