Habitat for Humanity was welcomed into Goleta with open arms as the Planning Commission made quick work of the nonprofit low-income housing organization’s request for permits for office space and storage of building materials.
Habitat’s new location would be in Cabrillo Business Park‘s building 14, 6725 Hollister Ave. The organization would take up about 4,350 square feet of an existing 22,000-square-foot building, space it would use for its wood shop, machine shop, administrative offices, and storage and sale of used or excess building materials.
The hours of operation for Habitat’s ReStore program would be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. five days a week, including some Saturdays. Office hours would be 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays.
Aside from the housing for which Habitat for Humanity is known, its presence in Goleta is welcomed because of the ReStore program, which sells secondhand or excess, but still functional, material — a practice that not only provides funds for the organization, but is environmentally sound.
“The ReStore component is what’s really exciting for us,” said local Habitat board member Paul Bradford.
“If you’re a commercial or residential remodeler and you take out a sink or two or 10, normally those would go to a landfill,” he said. “In our case, those (sinks) would come to us and in turn we could sell at a reasonable price.”
The result, he said, is that Habitat can make a reasonable profit as well as prevent usable construction material from going to the local landfill.
“I think this is a wonderful project and I hope it does very well in our community,” said Commissioner Julie Solomon. “I’m sure it will.”