Isla Vista’s new community center will offer a multi-use facility to a neighborhood long thirsting for a public gathering place.
The Isla Vista Community Center, located at the former St. Athanasius Orthodox Church at 976 Embarcadero Del Mar, is the first of its kind in the area, and is equipped to handle large events.
Renovations of the space should be finished next month, but the center does not have an official opening date yet, said Diana Collins Puente, the community center’s director.
The first step will be envisioning how to use the 3,000-square-foot building for future programs, she said.
Residents have offered a lot of ideas already, like community gardens, a kitchen for cooking demonstrations, and a place for education, recreation, arts, gatherings and other programs and social activities.
More than 100 IVCC partners received the first glimpse inside the center earlier this month during a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a reception.
“It looks amazing inside,” said Lori Goodman, executive director of the Isla Vista Youth Projects. “It’s a big, wide-open space … it’s going to be a great space once it’s available for all kinds of wonderful activities.”
IVCC is an opportunity to promote a healthy environment, social connections and community celebrations, she said.
The vacant building used to be a bank and a church in the unincorporated community west of UC Santa Barbara.
“The Isla Vista community is grassroots and has been asking for a community center for decades,” Goodman said. “The community center building is the culmination of years of activism, community meetings, negotiations with the county and great work on behalf of the Third District of the county.”
The county acquired ownership of the building after the dissolution of the California Redevelopment Agencies in 2012, with the intent for the site to become a community center, according to Third District County Supervisor Joan Hartmann.
Hartmann said it will be a “momentous achievement” to open the center.
“After decades of challenges in securing a location and funding, this new center finally creates a place for the IV community to have a convivial space of its own for dancing, making art, classes and engaging in a variety of enjoyable activities together,” Hartmann said in a statement.
The Board of Supervisors provided more than $400,000 in funding to renovate and seismically retrofit the old church building, and the county received a $435,000 supplemental grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development to help with construction.
The Isla Vista Community Services District partnered with Isla Vista Youth Projects to manage IVCC’s operations through a shared-governance model, according to the statement.
To oversee the center’s operation and programs, a community advisory board was established, with representatives from stakeholder groups like local nonprofits, UCSB, Santa Barbara City College, the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District, Isla Vista Community Services District and UCSB’s Associated Students.
Residents, organizations, educational institutions and government agencies can reserve and rent IVCC for various community or private activities and attend programs once the advisory board and IVCC staff create preliminary decisions for the facility’s capacity, mission and guidelines, according to a news release.
“It is important that a wide range of stakeholders oversee the operations and programs offered at the community center so that it can live up to community expectations,” Spencer Brandt, president of the Isla Vista Community Services District, said in a statement.
“We are striving to make the community center an inclusive space where students, families, children, and all residents can enjoy entertainment, arts and recreational activities.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
