The Goleta Design Review Board has recommended approval of two new medical buildings proposed for 6975 Santa Felicia Drive, following a conceptual and preliminary review Tuesday.

The proposed project, being referred to as the Storke Medical Center, is set to include a pair of two-story medical office buildings — each at 18,600 square feet, for a total of 37,200 square feet — along with parking, landscaping and lighting.

The project site is located adjacent to Ice in Paradise and Santa Barbara County Fire Department Station 11.

While the project applicant, Wynmark, said there currently aren’t any tenants set for the buildings, they are intended for medical office use. 

Part of one of the buildings will be reserved for a child care facility with a 1,200-square-foot outdoor play yard. The facility would be available for children of employees working in the medical buildings, and possibly for children of patients receiving care at the medical center.

According to the staff report, the new parking lot to be created for the project would have 71 standard parking spaces and eight ADA-compliant parking spaces. There also would be 15 electric-vehicle charging stations and 12 bicycle parking spaces for each building — six covered bicycle parking spaces and six uncovered spaces.

Although the board did receive a couple of written public comments, which can be found online here, requesting more housing or another community center in the space instead, most public comments during the meeting were supportive of the proposed medical office buildings and commended the bicycle parking and other planned amenities.

The project also was received positively by the board, but it did stipulate in its recommendation that the developer consider expanding and improving pedestrian access through the parking lot and use native trees in the landscaping.

Now that the Design Review Board has recommended approval, the Storke Medical Center project will go before the Goleta Planning Commission and then the Goleta City Council, who will make the final decision for the project.

According to the notice of proposed development posted outside the site, the Storke Medical Center project is scheduled to go before the Goleta Planning Commission during the June 26 meeting.