Design plans for the Santa Barbara County Probation Department headquarters in downtown Santa Barbara are finished, and the county plans to bid out the construction project by the end of the year, according to the General Services Department.

The county Board of Supervisors awarded a construction management contract to the Cumming Management Group on Tuesday for work during the pre-bidding, bidding, construction and post-construction phases.

Chief Probation Officer Holly Benton told Noozhawk that the new space will give the Probation Department a centralized spot for its services.

“It’s also helpful to the court and to the individuals that we supervise for them to be able to walk over to our location to report in and to see their probation officer or their pretrial officer,” Benton said. “Those individuals who are being served at the Hollister (Avenue) building are quite far away from the downtown area, where the district attorney and court are all located.”

Once the new building is complete, the county will use the current Carrillo Street and Hollister Avenue probation offices for other purposes. The Probation Department plans to bring in all staff to work at the new location, according to Benton. 

The new site will take over a majority of the county parking lot at 1019 Garden St. The building will reflect the county’s Net Zero Energy Policy, according to a letter to the Board of Supervisors from General Services. 

In August 2020, the Probation Department and RNT Architects partnered with the General Services Department to begin the conceptual design process.

According to General Services, the architecture firm is finishing construction documents, and the county plans to open bids for a contractor in the fourth quarter of 2023. It plans to break ground in early 2024.