The Carpinteria Architectural Review Board gave final design approval Thursday for Aliso Elementary School’s new single-story kindergarten building and suggested minimal changes to the landscape. 

The project proposed for the school’s campus at 4545 Carpinteria Ave. was last before the board in July. Since then, it has received approval from the Carpinteria Planning Commission and the Division of the State Architect. 

The roughly 6,500-square-foot building will have four classrooms, each with its own student bathroom. Additional student and staff bathrooms will be located at the building’s center.

It will be C-shaped, with a maximum height of 27 feet 10 inches. 

The building will replace seven portable classrooms. Five portables on the east side of the 7.79-acre campus have already been removed, while the two on the west side will remain until construction is complete.

The new building also will be elevated because it is located in a flood hazard area. 

The design largely falls in line with other already-built buildings on the campus. That includes, among other design choices, white plaster exterior walls, blue-green colored window trim and doors, and aqua-tinted window glass.

However, the new building will have hip roofs instead of gable roofs, as well as four square cupolas on the top of each classroom.

The four cupolas’ footprint was reduced and the height was raised since the board’s last review, after board members said the cupolas’ previous design looked bulky. 

Also in response to previous board comments, cornices and corbels were added on top of large windows on the building’s west side and two windows on the east side to help add more “whimsy” to the design.

To accommodate the new building, the school’s parking lot on the east side will lose five spaces.

The district’s original 2017 Master Plan had envisioned updated modular — but permanent — buildings to replace the portable classrooms at Aliso Elementary School.

However, after installing modular buildings at nearby Carpinteria Middle School and Canalino Elementary School, the Carpinteria Unified School District instead elected for a single, permanent building at Aliso Elementary School. 

The changes are largely funded by Measure U, a 2014 bond.

The board on Thursday had a few questions and suggested limited changes.

Board member Lisa Wolf said the building had a “nice design” and wished the school luck, while board member Richard Johnson called it a “fine project.” 

Board member Patrick O’Connor said he would like to see a more detailed maintenance plan for the campus in the future.

“The landscape maintenance has basically been reduced to mulch and weed whipping and a few signature bushes,” O’Connor said. “(…) I’d like to encourage the district to be more articulate about their budgeting for maintenance.”  

Board member Amy Blakemore agreed.

She also requested that the coral bells and the grama grass be replaced with more durable and longer-living species. 

“Anything else on here is going to have a really nice, long life, and is going to put up with a bunch of kids smacking at it … but those two are just not,” she said. 

Members’ unanimous final approval, with comments, asked the project team to consider replacing those two plant species.

Project architect Robert Robles said he would talk to the district about replacing those with others that cost roughly the same. 

The board also suggested that the district come up with a new traffic flow plan for the campus.

The original Master Plan had included an on-site traffic plan, but that was later cut, most likely because of the cost, O’Connor said.

Robles said current plans envisioned under the Measure U bond focus on replacing the aging portables and modernizing the campus. A new traffic site plan is among future, but separate, plans.