Community college expands north
Officials here have announced that Santa Monica College will soon have a satellite campus in Malibu, now that an agreement has been reached to purchase a 7-acre site for $8 million.
“We are excited to announce this purchase, which marks the first step in establishing a permanent Santa Monica College site in Malibu,” said SMC President Chui Tsang. “This will be the home of an educational center that will really address the needs of the community of Malibu. It will be a more convenient learning location for some of those who cannot travel (to SMC’s main campus in Santa Monica).”
Tsang said the plan is to offer general education classes to help students transfer to other institutions of higher learning. Courses of general interest — to be determined following a survey of students’ needs — also will be offered, along with courses geared towards adults looking to make a career change.
The education center would not be a full fledged campus, Tsang added.
The property, sold to SMC by the Hitoshi Yamaguchi family, is located at 23801 Stuart Ranch Rd., adjacent to Malibu City Hall and the Civic Center area.
“We’ve been looking at (the property) for awhile and we were very happy when it came on the market,” Tsang said. “It’s the right size and it’s in the right location and so that’s why we made the offer we did.”
Funding for the property acquisition comes from Measure S, the $135 million bond measure approved by Santa Monica-Malibu voters in 2004. A total of $25 million of Measure S funds has been set aside for an SMC educational center in Malibu.
Tsang said efforts to build the facility began several years ago during discussions with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and elected officials from Malibu. All parties wanted to expand educational opportunities for grade-school students, while simultaneously offering services to recent graduates and other residents in the area.
While SMC has had an often contentious relationship with Santa Monica City Hall and residents living nearby the main campus — much of which has to do with the college’s expansion and the traffic that comes with it — Malibu seems to be ready to welcome one of the world’s most famous community colleges with open arms.
“We think it’s a great idea,” said Malibu City Councilman Andy Stern. “That’s why we supported the bond measure to purchase the property. We think it’s a great location for a campus, being located right in the middle of our Civic Center.”
Tsang said the property is in escrow and during the next 90 days soil samples and other geological studies will be conducted, the results of which will determine whether or not the deal will go forward.
There could be some concerns about fault lines, Malibu Mayor Ken Kearsley said.
“You are not allowed to build learning institutions near fault lines so whether or not this pans out remains to be seen,” Kearsley, a graduate of SMC, said. “Hopefully it does.”
Not only would the presence of SMC in Malibu help residents there and in surrounding communities, it will benefit Santa Monicans too, as traffic into the city would be reduced, Kearsley said.
“We have 500 students from … our zip code going to Santa Monica taking at least one course who travel a clogged Pacific Coast Highway,” Kearsley said. “Hopefully we can cut down on some of those trips.”
Kearsley said Malibu and SMC will be starting their relationship with a “clean slate,” and he looks forward to working with Tsang on building a center that adheres to current zoning laws that limit the size of a development. The new facility would be developed under an existing joint powers agreement with the City of Malibu.
“We welcome SMC,” Kearsley said. “We think this will be a great opportunity for our students.”
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Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 16, 2006. Read the original PDF.