> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # SMC may be returning to Malibu - URL: https://www.smdp.com/smc-may-be-returning-to-malibu/ - Published: 2008-02-16T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T18:32:03.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import *College board approves renovation* MALIBU After a more than 20-year-absence, Santa Monica College’s presence could once again be felt in Malibu. College officials are currently in negotiations with county officials to purchase the former sheriff’s station at the Malibu Civic Center to serve as a satellite campus, housing anywhere between eight to 10 classrooms. The Santa Monica College Community College District encompasses the same area as the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District but there have been minimal to no programs in the city since they were discontinued in the early 1980s because of funding shortages. The only courses offered in Malibu are through the emeritus program, which does not offer any credits, according to Don Girard, the senior director of government relations and institutional communications at SMC. Malibu and college officials have expressed a desire to bring programs back to the community, filling the junior college void that has existed there for two decades. It’s a measure that many advocates supporting the expansion believe will help lessen traffic along the Pacific Coast Highway, cutting the number of students that commute to Santa Monica from Malibu. “The two greatest inventions of civic government in the United States in America is the supreme court and the community college,” Malibu City Councilmember Ken Kearsley said on Friday. “It’s a situation that helps the working-class children and gives people an opportunity to take night classes to be able to better themselves.” “The city of Malibu does not have all billionaires,” Kearsley, a retired Santa Monica High School teacher, said. “There’s a lot of people in this city who can’t afford to send their children or themselves to an $800 a unit university.” The acquisition of the site will be funded using Measure S money, a $135 million bond measure that was passed in November 2004\. The Joint Powers Authority, a legal partnership between Malibu City Hall and the college, has been granted the right to spend up to $25 million of Measure S funds toward a satellite campus that can be up to 25,000 square feet in size. The JPA will also spend as part of the bond measure approximately $2.5 million toward the development of a wastewater treatment site at Legacy Park, a meadow located off Pacific Coast Highway, formerly known as the Chili Cookoff site. Putting money toward the wastewater treatment center was part of the agreement in expanding the programs to Malibu, Girard said. The county Board of Supervisors expressed support in exploring the sale of the former sheriff’s station, which has been vacant since 1991, passing in January a motion that calls for staff to begin negotiations with the JPA, according to Alisa Katz, the chief of staff for Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westside. “It’s a unique opportunity for the community college district to expand educational opportunities in the Malibu area and it’s a very good location and it’s something we can make work,” Katz said. Sharon Barovsky, one of the representatives of the Joint Powers Authority with Kearsley, said she thinks the Malibu Civic Center would be an ideal location for the campus. “It’s in the heart of the city and it would be easily accessible by everyone here,” Barovsky said on Friday. “We have 300 students that travel every day to the college in Santa Monica and that would take them off the street to go to the local college.” SMC Board of Trustees Chairman Rob Rader said the residents of Malibu deserve to get the college services that Santa Monicans have easy access to every day. “We made a promise to the Malibu community that we are going to bring more services to them,” Rader said. Trustees in October 2006 terminated the purchase of a 7-acre site in Malibu located at 23801 Stuart Ranch Road after determining that the site was not adequate to meet development needs. A legal agreement between the authority and the owners of the property, Yamaguchi Tokiye Trust, prevented all parties from disclosing any details about the sale, including reasons why SMC pulled out of the deal. The college was prepared to purchase the site for a reported $8 million. Pico project moves forward The trustees earlier this week approved three major projects currently in the pipeline, including the construction of the Student Services Center on the northeast corner of the main campus, the renovation of Drescher Hall and a series of landscaping improvements along Pico Boulevard. The intent of the project is to create a clearly identifiable frontage for the college, a much more physically pleasant main entrance to the Pico Boulevard side than what currently exists, according to college officials. Several residents in the Sunset Park neighborhood have expressed reservations about the $80 million project, concerned about congestion and other impacts on the college’s neighbors. Rader believes the project will make the campus much easier to navigate for the students. “From the perspective of our community, it’s going to take all the drivers that are hunting for parking spots... to finally have a place to go,” Rader said. “From the perspective of the community, it will really create a transportation hub in one area so that it further takes them away from the neighborhood.” The multi-phase project also includes the relocation of the parking lot on the northeast corner of the campus to a three-level underground structure that will accommodate 500 cars. Drescher Hall will also be renovated and become the home of the bookstore. A series of unsightly wings that jettison from Drescher Hall toward Pico Boulevard will also be removed, creating space for a long open-space promenade along the street. “Our front door will be presented to the community in a nicer way,” Rader said. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 16, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/021608.pdf?ref=smdp.com)