The Goleta Design Review Board supported the revised project plans for the Storke Medical Center Tuesday.

The project was originally approved in 2023 to build a pair of two-story medical office buildings and a childcare facility at 6975 Santa Felicia Dr., near Ice in Paradise.

However, the project team revised the plans to propose one 39,660-square-foot, Spanish-style medical office building and a 1,230-square-foot childcare facility with a 1,500-square-foot outdoor play yard.

“I like the building; I love that it has a bit of Spanish flair and it looks great,” Design Review Board member Tamesha Schumacher said. 

The change of plans from two buildings to one larger building brought the project back in front of the board on Tuesday.

The Design Review Board members supported the plans, so their recommendations and suggestions for the project team will go before the city’s Planning Commission. 

The change to the project was triggered after the project team was approached by a single-operator medical clinic that wanted the whole project, according to Kim Schizas, project manager.

They didn’t want individual offices, and they wanted to run their entire clinic there in one building, she added.

“When they decided they wanted one building, we worked very hard to figure out how we were going to make that happen,” Schizas said. 

One of the revisions includes increasing the building height from 37 to 39 feet for the needs of the medical provider, according to Paul Poirier, project architect. Additionally, more parking spaces were added.

Schizas acknowledged community concern about the building’s height and said the project team tried to find ways to not have the roof exceed the approved maximum height of 37 feet.

“It looked horrible; the roof was so squatty next to the building, it was just awful,” she said.  

Additionally, some board members critiqued the tower element that would be at the corner of the project site. The element was initially suggested by the board about three years ago, according to Poirier.

“The tower looks bolted on to me,” Schumacher said. “It would be nice if there was something along the roofline maybe to tie it in a little bit.”

Board member Dennis Whelan liked the tower element and said he might have been one of the members to suggest it in the past. But he was concerned the tower would block views of the mountains for motorists headed north on Storke Road. 

“The story poles really revealed this really does block the view of the mountains,” he said.

Wendy Altman, vice president of the Ice in Paradise board, spoke in support of the proposed project on Tuesday. 

“We do lots of sports that could result in injuries, and it’s nice to have a medical facility nearby,” she said. 

Altman added the parking would also support Ice in Paradise patrons. 

The project will next go to the city’s Planning Commission for review.