CHULA VISTA
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Southwestern College officials are considering placing a bond measure of as much as $388.6 million on the November ballot to construct new buildings on its main campus, repair and upgrade old buildings and buy land for future satellite sites.
The college's governing board decided last week to hire a pollster for $34,000 to gauge support for raising property taxes to cover the financing of college construction.
College officials spent a year compiling an inventory of the school's needs to produce a master plan that has $388.6 million worth of projects.
Polling results will guide college planners in deciding whether to recommend a bond measure to the governing board and how much money to ask for. The board has until Aug. 8 to pass a resolution placing the measure on the November ballot.
“I would hope that we could get support for the whole plan,” said John Wilson, director of business and operations for the college. Wilson said he hopes poll respondents will support $350 million to $388 million in spending on college projects.
“It's not about trying to turn the place into a Taj Mahal. It's about providing safe, environmentally friendly instructional facilities,” Wilson said.
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Overview
Background: In 2000, voters approved an $89 million bond measure for Southwestern College to build campuses in Otay Mesa and National City and to repair and renovate the main campus in Chula Vista.
What's changing: The college's governing board has hired a pollster to gauge support for a November bond measure of as much as $388.6 million to develop a long-vacant lot with a bookstore, classrooms and an administration building. A list of planned projects also includes expanding satellite campuses and numerous renovations of old buildings.
The future: If the governing board passes a resolution by early August, South County voters would decide in November whether to raise property taxes to finance all or part of the $388.6 million construction program.
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The college's vision for its future includes a $70 million complex on vacant land at East H Street and Otay Lakes Road known in the community as the corner lot. The project would include a bookstore, a new administration building, a classroom building and possibly a building that it would share with another educational institution.
What to do with the corner lot has been the subject of various proposals and failed initiatives for at least a decade.
Other big-ticket items on the list include:
$54 million for replacement of roofs, plumbing and electrical, heating and air conditioning systems;
$41 million for satellite campuses in eastern and western Chula Vista;
$26 million to expand the new Otay Mesa campus;
$25 million for a power plant;
$18 million for a new two-story building on the National City campus;
$15 million to remodel the gymnasium.
In 2000, South County voters approved Proposition AA, an $89 million measure that paid for construction of campuses in Otay Mesa and National City. The measure imposed an annual surcharge on property taxes of $16.79 per $100,000 of assessed value. South County property owners will be repaying the borrowing through property tax surcharges through 2030.
Voters in the Sweetwater Union High School District, which covers roughly the same territory as the area served by the college, approved a $644 million bond measure in 2006. Officials with the South Bay Union School District, which includes schools in Imperial Beach and surrounding South San Diego neighborhoods, are also considering a November bond measure.
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com
