Nearly eight years after Santa Barbara City Community College District voters passed a $77.2-million facility improvement bond measure, the majority of construction projects are complete.
Perhaps the most visible change on the campus is the approximately 30,000-square-foot building located adjacent to the Garvin Theatre and West Campus parking lot.
Construction on this Measure V funded project, which passed in 2008 with more than 70 percent approval, is anticipated to be complete in January 2018.
It will be built in compliance with Leadership Energy & Development Design standards and includes approximately 30 new state‐of‐the‐art classrooms.
The building project replaces aging portable classrooms located throughout the East Campus, said SBCC spokesperson Luz Reyes-Martin.
“Being a huge project, it has come in on budget and on time,” Reyes-Martin said.
Reyes-Martin said the California Coastal Commission asked the community college to restore the site where the portables reside back to an open space.
Bond funding has also helped modernize learning technology, upgrade classroom infrastructure and office buildings.
Replacing the track and field at La Playa Stadium, roofing repairs, exterior painting, pedestrian bridge repairs and electronic door locks are some of the completed maintenance projects.
Since the bond passage, homeowners within the college district boundaries pay approximately $34 more annually in property taxes.
A bond oversight committee monitors project updates and spending. The seven-member, all-volunteer board will hold its next meeting on June 15.
“They take their role seriously and know they have a lot of responsibility to make sure this public investment is used appropriately,” Reyes-Martin said.
The Measure V annual report can be reviewed here.
In the last five years, 68 of the 72 Community College Districts in California have passed local bonds, according to the SBCC website.
— 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.
