By Mike Harris Wednesday, August 7th, 2024

To expand residential housing for students at Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, about 7,600 new student beds will be created at the two universities over the next six years.

Construction began at Cal Poly in July on the first phase of a 10-year, 4,100-bed project.

The CSU Board of Trustees approved the plan at its July 23-24 meeting, the San Luis Obispo University announced in a July 25 press release.

Jim Dantona, president/CEO of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, said more on-campus student housing means less off-campus student housing, a plus for a region with a housing shortage.

“Our biggest challenge up and down the Central Coast is housing,” he told the Business Times July 30.

“And so, when Cal Poly is able to take more students on campus, that frees up a ton of space in our housing market for others,” Dantona said. 

He said that is the case for San Luis Obispo, “as well as all the adjacent areas too as the city fills up and it gets crazy expensive.”

San Luis Obispo County Administrative Officer Matt Pontes agreed that more on-campus student housing at Cal Poly will help alleviate the county’s housing shortage.

“This is another example of the strategic, forward-thinking that Cal Poly leadership is focused on that benefits our community,” he said.

Pontes, a Cal Poly alumnus and parent of a current Cal Poly student said that “as the county works to expand regional housing opportunities across all areas of our county, this additional on-campus housing for Cal Poly students is extremely helpful towards our collaborative efforts.”

The project’s first phase consists of approximately 1,348 beds in three buildings, opening in fall 2026 and fall 2027.

Subsequent phases are anticipated to open every year thereafter, with the final phase of new construction completed in 2030.

The project will add the beds to campus housing in nine buildings on the existing site of the K1, K2 and R1 parking lots and the North Mountain residence halls.

The plan includes new construction and major renovations to the university’s six red-brick residence halls, which are more than 60 years old.

The undertaking is part of the university’s larger $1 billion future housing plan that will help ease existing demand, accommodate future enrollment growth, and address aging campus housing facilities, according to Cal Poly officials. 

When construction is complete, university housing will be able to accommodate all second-year students on campus, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said in the press release. 

The university already houses all first-year and many second-year students on its grounds.

About 22,300 students attend the university.

“We’re pleased that the CSU Board of Trustees is supportive of this plan,” Armstrong said.

Residential units will be organized primarily in three-bedroom suites, with each bedroom designed for double occupancy. 

Each suite will include two bathrooms and a living space to be shared by the occupants. 

The project architect is Steinberg Hart, based in Los Angeles. The design-build contractor is Whiting-Turner, a national firm with Southern California offices. 

Meanwhile, UC Santa Barbara continues to move ahead with a development plan that will create 3,500 new student beds on its main campus in accordance with the targets highlighted in the university’s 2010 Long Range Development Plan.

The first phase of the two-part project includes 2,100 new student beds and is expected to be ready for occupancy by fall 2027.

An additional 1,400 beds are projected to be completed by 2029.

The university has about 24,700 students.

“The university is rapidly advancing on development plans,” university spokeswoman Kiki Reyes told the Business Times July 29.

The project’s initial phase, San Benito, is a student community to be built on a roughly five-acre site between Mesa and Stadium roads, the former location of UCSB’s facilities management division and transportation and parking services. 

Envisioned as mostly four-bedroom apartments with a mix of some doubles and singles, San Benito will feature dining facilities and amenities.

They include a market and café, study and game rooms, recreational spaces and both bike and pedestrian pathways connecting the site to the campus as a whole.

Planning and design for phase two of the project – a student residence hall on the southeast end of the campus – is expected to begin later this year.

Architectural firms Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Los Angeles, in association with Mithun of Seattle, will oversee the design and construction process.

Gene Lucas, co-chair of the university’s Student Housing Project Building Committee, said in a press release that the new housing project “will ensure the campus meets its long-term housing goals, and it will enhance the quality of academic excellence and student life.”

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