Hamden’s Quinnipiac University said it plans to seek town approval to increase the number of beds on its York Hill campus by 20 percent.
QU said it hopes to add 300 beds to the campus, which is located less than two miles from its flagship Mount Carmel Avenue campus.
York Hill already has 1,500 beds — 271 of which are empty. QU said it hopes to fill those beds for the start of the semester in September.
Construction related to the additional beds would cost about $33 million, the school said late last week, and could be complete in time for the start of the fall 2016 semester, if approval is swift.
The announcement Friday followed a zoning hearing in which QU lost its appeal of a cease-desist order related to its on-campus housing.
The order, issued in February, said that the school wasn’t complying with the conditions of the original approval to build the campus in 2007, which required that the campus have 2,000 beds.
Adding 300 beds would get QU part of the way to that required number, and it said it plans to add another 200 beds in the future.
According to the New Haven Register, QU officials argued that there isn’t enough demand from students who want to live on campus to provide the additional beds.
But the local Zoning Board of Appeals upheld the order.
QU said late last week that it wants more students to live on campus and that it hopes the proposed addition of 300 beds will show that the school is committed to addressing concerns about off-campus housing.
Hamden residents have complained about some students’ partying and behavior in neighborhoods over the years.
The complaints are one of the reasons House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, has pushed for legislation that would levy property taxes on school-owned student housing with 20 or fewer units.
The Planning & Zoning Commission, which issued the cease-and-desist order in February, is rewriting its housing regulations, with a moratorium on new student housing in place.
QU said it supports the moratorium and would like to see it made permanent.
