A new child care center is coming to Santa Barbara.
Island View Preschool received approval for a conditional use permit from the Santa Barbara Planning commission on Thursday.
The 30-unit center would primarily serve the families that work at the Riviera Park, in the Riviera Campus Historic District, 2020 Alameda Padre Serra Way.
“It’s an outstanding project,” said commissioner Brian Barnwell. “This is a way underserved group in our community.”
The day care center will be inside a suite at the Ebbets Hall building and provide child care
for children ranging in age from infancy to 4 years, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The center would be staffed by five teachers, a director, and an offsite executive director.
“We know our goal as a school is to provide a great workplace for our teachers who are passionate about early childhood education,” said Cathleen Smith, director of Island View Preschool. “Early education teachers are the caregivers responsible, with parents, for the most important years of childhood development.”
The vote was 7-0.
According to the Santa Barbara County Child Care Planning Council report released in 2020, there was an estimated deficit of 9,371 spaces for children ages 0-5 in licensed
care facilities.
Surveyed providers in the cities of Goleta and Santa Barbara reported that more than 1,000 parents were on waitlists for infant and toddler spaces and another 1,100 are on waitlists for children from 3 to 4 years of age.
The project includes an outdoor activity area, and designated passenger loading area for drop-off and pick-up of enrolled children. The outdoor activity area is proposed in a landscaped area at the western end of the Ebbets Hall building, facing the southerly parking lot. New iron fencing and a gate, 4 feet in height, would enclose the outdoor activity area.
“For most working parents, if you can’t get child care then you can’t work, and that’s a really, really tremendous need in our community,” said Ben Romo, a political consultant who represents Yardi Systems, which is owned by the Yardi family. “There’s an extreme lack of childcare spaces available in the city and across the county.”
The site was originally developed in 1913 as the Santa Barbara Normal School for Manual Arts and Home Economics. The site became home to UCSB in 1944. In 1973, it became a commercial office building.
Lesley Wiscomb, a member of the planning commission, noted the need for childcare services and said “we all love this project.”
Director Smith has been a teacher for decades and believes strongly in the mission of her school.
“We agree that the choice of a good preschool is as important as a choice of a college,” Smith said.
