CHULA VISTA – South County's November ballot will include a $389 million bond measure for new construction and repairs at Southwestern College.
The college's five-member board of trustees unanimously approved a resolution last night to place the measure on the ballot.
It proposes an annual property tax levy of $19.60 per $100,000 of assessed value in the community college district, a surcharge that could continue through 2045.
To pass, the proposition requires 55 percent approval from voters in the Southwestern Community College District, which includes all of South County and Coronado.
The centerpiece of the proposed construction program is the development of a vacant lot at East H Street and Otay Lakes Road. The $70 million project would include a bookstore, administration building, campus police station, food court, classrooms and possibly a building that the college would invite another higher-education institution to share.
The measure also calls for a $17 million, two-story classroom building at the college's National City campus; a $25 million expansion of the new Otay Mesa campus; and a $5.5 million parking structure for the San Ysidro campus that is being rebuilt.
The measure contains a long list of items that includes extensive remodeling, replacement of roofs and heating/air-conditioning systems and a new satellite campus in Chula Vista.
Lisa Cohen, chief executive officer of the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce; Ernie Carrillo, president of the San Diego County Deputy Sheriffs' Association; Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista administrator Peter Mabrey and others spoke at the special board meeting to encourage the trustees to put the measure on the ballot. No one spoke against it.
Voters passed an $89 million bond measure for the college in 2000. Property owners will continue to pay $16.79 per $100,000 of assessed value each year through 2030 to pay off those bonds.
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com
