The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit Wednesday for The Pad Climbing gym in the Magnolia Shopping Center.

After already opening The BoardRoom training facility at 5140 Hollister Ave., The Pad plans to open a full climbing facility and needs permission for building alterations.

The development plan and permit approved this week includes raising the height of the building to 40 feet from 35 feet, to accommodate the climbing walls, and constructing a new second-level mezzanine.

The Pad Climbing, which already has climbing facilities in San Luis Obispo and in Henderson, Nevada, has already begun its expansion to the Santa Barbara area with the opening of the BoardRoom in May. 

“They’re very community oriented,” said J. Ritterbeck, who was representing the project applicants. “They’re very committed to sports and fitness, and excited about this project.”

The BoardRoom is a smaller facility next to where the full climbing gym will be, that provides a 24/7 training area with weights, training boards, and different types of climbing walls.

Founding member Yishai Horowitz told Noozhawk in May that the team behind The Pad is “very excited and grateful to be in the community,” and they hope for The Pad to become a “third space” for people, after home and work.

“This is laudable in that it’s a reinvestment in our community at a time when retail is struggling,” Commissioner Larry Ferini said before voting to approve the permits.

“It’s kind of an evolutionary project of what we’re seeing happen with these shopping centers — they have to find something else that Amazon can’t compete with them on, if you would.”