The University of California at Berkeley may build a controversial athletics-training center that has drawn nearly two years of protests and lawsuits from tree-sitters, neighborhood groups, and the City of Berkeley, a local judge ruled on Tuesday.

The ruling concluded a trial that pitted the university against its host city and other groups, which argued that the project violated state environmental and earthquake regulations. One of the groups, the California Oak Foundation, said it would immediately appeal the ruling and seek a new injunction to block construction while the appeal is heard, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The training center, estimated to cost $124-million, would sit adjacent to the university’s football arena, Memorial Stadium, and would replace a grove of oak trees. In an effort to save the trees, a group of tree-sitters has been living in the grove illegally for more than a year, attracting extensive news-media attention and putting the university in a delicate position.

The university has tried several ways to remove the protesters, with some success, including limiting their food and water rations and pulling them from the trees with cherry-pickers. The three remaining protesters signaled that they were prepared to remain in the trees as long as possible, the newspaper reported. —Josh Keller