SMC Malibu Satellite Campus Begins Construction: Four years to Build 27,500 Square Feet

A project begun in the early 2000s to construct a satellite campus for Santa Monica College in Malibu finally won all the necessary approvals for construction, roughly 18 years later. The 27,5000-square-foot project will include six classrooms and a Los Angeles County Sheriff substation. Located in the Malibu Civic Center near the Malibu Farmers Market and Pepperdine University, it has not yet been decided what classes will be offered in the new building, which is scheduled to open in 2022.

However, Shari Davis, co-director of the Public Policy Institute at SMC, believes courses will include an Emeritus program and dual enrollment for students attending the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

SMC has in the past offered limited classes to Malibu residents at the Malibu Senior Center and Webster Elementary School. Once this building is completed, there will be a set location for such classes.

A number of dignitaries showed up for a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, September 21, including Malibu Mayor Rick Mullen, LA County District 3 Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, and SMC Board of Trustees Chair Barry Snell. Snell is currently running for reelection. Sheila Kuehl has been an elected leader of one sort or another since 1994, including six years in the California State Assembly and eight years in the State Senate.

Needless to say of any project undertaken by either Malibu or Santa Monica, the projected campus will be all kinds of sustainable. Of course, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification will be obtained to show the project meets certain environmental standards. Drought tolerant landscaping and environmentally friendly lighting will be features, along with other attention paid the Malibu's clean water infrastructure and lowering of CO2 emissions. In addition, a waste water filtering facility will be included.

Sheriff Jim McDonnell is pleased to have a substation available again in Malibu, for the first time since the 1990s. Currently, officers make a 22-mile round trip from the next nearest station in Agoura Hills.

He will have to wait four years, however. Four years to construct a 27,500-square-foot building. Considering it took nearly two decades to win approval for construction, however, one supposes he should consider himself lucky.