People’s Park partially closed for temporary soil testing Daniel Kim/Staff UC Berkeley Capital Strategies has blocked off different parts of People’s Park in order to conduct geotechnical investigations as part of preparations to build student and supportive housing. The soil and safety testing will be conducted over the next three weeks. In preparation for plans to build student and supportive housing, UC Berkeley Capital Strategies, which oversees campus development, temporarily closed sections of People’s Park on Tuesday for soil and safety testing. Over the next three weeks, different parts of the park will be blocked off for geotechnical investigation, a term for soil and ground testing conducted by developers to optimize their designs for seismic safety, according to UC Berkeley Capital Strategies spokesperson Kyle Gibson. These tests are part of the environmental review for plans to construct more undergraduate student housing and permanent supportive housing in People’s Park for formerly homeless or very low-income individuals, Gibson said. He added that there are plans to revitalize and landscape more than an acre of the park’s open space as well.