Walnut Creek Wants to Become Second Home For Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

Walnut Creek was among 21 communities and land owners that submitted proposals saying it wanted to become home to a second campus for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The laboratory is running out of space in its Berkeley hills location and has been looking for a place within 25 miles to house a second, 2-million square foot campus that would accommodate about 800 scientists and other employees. The lab is involved in research around energy and the environment, biofuels and supercomputers.

Walnut Creek's Assistant City Manager Lorie Tinfow told the Berkeley Voice that Walnut Creek submitted a proposal, saying it had space in the Shadelands Business Park, which is bounded by Ygnacio Valley and Oak Grove Road.

Bringing world-class scientists to Walnut Creek and to Shadelands is not such a far-fetched idea, considering that the light industrial park has been home, for more than 10 years, to the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Research Institute. The institute consolidates research in genome mapping and DNA sequencing that takes place at the department's other laboratories, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

However, Walnut Creek faces stiff competiton from land owners closer to the Lawrence Berkeley lab's Berkeley hills location. Oher land owners that submitted prposals are in Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, Alameda and Richmond, according to the Berkeley voice.

Several months ago, when Lawerence Berkeley Laboratory first put out calls for proposals from East Bay communities,  I talked to Jay Hoyer, the president and CEO of Walnut Creek's Chamber of Commerce. He agreed that Walnut Creek would make a great location for the laboratory, particularly because it has been so welcoming to the Joint Genome Institute.

On the other hand, he acknolwedged that Walnut Creek could be at a disadvantage because many of the scientists live on the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel or have teaching or research ties to UC Berkeley. Locations in Berkeley, Alameda, Richmond or Oakland could be more desirable because they are closer to the UC campus, he said. 

Another city on this side of the hills that submitted a proposal is Dublin. SunCal companies, with support from the city, has proposed building the campus on a 180-acre plot of land currently owned by the Army at Camp Parks off Dublin Boulevard. Dublin Mayor Tim Sbranti and other council members said Dublin offers an abundance of land and proximity to BART and two major freeways.

Spokesman Jon Weiner told the Berkeley voice that the lab hopes to have a shortlist of three to five acceptable candidates by mid-April. A final decision would come in June, and the new campus would open sometime in 2015.