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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) made minor changes in its plans for its planned biofuel lab, but rejected any move to another site, according to a recently released environmental review. 

A group of environmentalists and preservationists has called for either rejection or redrafting of the environmental impact reports (EIRs) of the Helios Building, and the city councils of both Berkeley and Richmond have resolutions on their agendas for their Tuesday night meetings. 

In Richmond, Vice Mayor John E. Marquez and councilmembers Nathaniel Bates and Maria T. Viramontes have sponsored a resolution calling on the UC Board of Regents to deny certification of the EIRs for both the Helios Building and for the Computational Research and Theory Facility, two high tech structures planned at either end of the lab’s campus on the slopes above the city and university campus. 

Instead, the Richmond resolution urges, the university should consider relocating the buildings to UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station, which had also been proposed by the university as the site of a corporate/academic research park until soil cleanup problems put the project on hold. 

The same night Richmond councilmembers are consider their resolution, their counterparts in Berkeley will take up a proposal by Councilmember Betty Olds to oppose certification of both EIRs unless the university allows another 30 days for public and official review of the final documents.