Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Alejandra Gutierrez remembers when she was part of the Santa Barbara Police Explorer program in high school.

She said the Santa Barbara Police Department building, at 215 E. Figueroa St., felt creepy.

“I would tell my friends sometimes I feel like a ghost is going to pop out,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez and her colleagues on the City Council on Tuesday took a major step toward rebuilding the station, with a unanimous vote to borrow money to build a new headquarters at the corner of Cota and Santa Barbara streets.

“I have seen it growing as I have been growing myself in the community,” Gutierrez said. “I am very, very proud of our department.”

The city plans to borrow up to $135 million from US Bank to pay for the new 65,000-square-foot headquarters. The debt also will cover a renovation of Dwight Murphy Field, including new soccer fields and the inclusive Gwendolyn’s Playground.

The city will make two payments a year for a total of about $8 million a year, including interest, to pay back the loan.

“This is a long-term commitment of paying debt service for 30 years,” Finance Director Keith DeMartini said.

The city will use Measure C sales tax money to pay back the loan. The annual payment is about 25% of the Measure C fund.

“This is not necessarily strapping us operationally to be able to make these payments, and there is some capacity if the City Council would like to explore additional debt issuances or other projects in the future,” DeMartini said.

The police station has long been in bad shape. Police Chief Kelly Gordon spoke at the meeting and outlined some of the problems with the station.

She said the locker room for female employees is inadequate, and the dispatch, recruitment and animal control departments are in separate buildings. She said there also are problems with leaky windows and generators at the buildings.

“The building was built in the early 1950s for a department in the early ’50s, not for a department in 2024,” Gordon said. “A new facility will allow us to provide services not only to our community better, but to our employees.”

She also said a new facility will allow the city to provide improved services to the community and employees, Gordon said.

City Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon supported the issuance of the bonds.

“The police station is fundamentally unsafe for the officers and for our community,” Sneddon said. “It is seismically unsound, and in a natural disaster, that hub of safety, communication, dispatch is not up to par. On top of that, we have mold issues and safety issues.”

City Councilwoman Meagan Harmon said she did not support the debt issuance “on a whim.”

“I did think very critically and seriously about what this means,” Harmon said. “There’s a limit to the money that we have, and by taking on this debt issuance, we have committed to repaying it.”

Harmon said future councils will have to pay back the debt, but both the police station and the new park are essential to the community.

“Dwight Murphy Field needs to be renovated. Our community needs and deserves Gwendolyn’s Playground,” Harmon said. “That is about our future. It is about health, about equitable play, it is about freedom. There is nothing better that we could be doing with this money.”

Dwight Murphy Field will be 100 years old next year.

Council Gets Update on Highway 101 Construction

Members of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments delivered a presentation to the council on the status of Highway 101 construction.

The Highway 101 high-occupancy-vehicle lane and widening project stretches over 16 miles
between Mussel Shoals in Ventura County and Milpas Street in Santa Barbara.

Three of the four phases are complete. The Santa Barbara South Segment will start in September and stretch from Olive Mill to Hermosillo roads. The Hermosillo offramp will be closed for five months.

Construction will last two years and is expected to be completed in 2026 — at the same time the Montecito sections will be finished.

Plans also call for creating a southbound onramp to Highway 101 on Cabrillo Boulevard, which will free up traffic congestion on Coast Village Road.

Already completed are roundabouts at Olive Mill and Los Patos roads.

“It looks beautiful,” Councilwoman Sneddon said. “A lot of people were skeptical with this project starting. Already the roundabouts are so beautiful and functional.”