Delta to look at creating north county campus again
A San Joaquin Delta College campus near Lodi might be back on the table.
The college's Board of Trustees on Tuesday received a brief presentation of previous commitments in Delta's Master Plan, and voted 6-0 to allow staff explore options for building a remote site in the Lodi or Galt areas.
“Finding new ways to serve students throughout Delta's service area is a top priority,” Delta president, Dr. Omid Pourzanjani, said in an e-mail statement Wednesday. “We recognize the needs of the growing north county population and we remain committed to finding solutions. While past efforts to establish a campus in the north county have been unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, we believe it is time to reexamine this issue in the hopes of taking future action.”
Trustees scrapped plans to build a north county campus in 2017, opting to focus on improvements to the main campus in
Stockton and the satellite campus in Mountain House, due to decreasing Measure L funds.
Voters approved Measure L in 2004, a $250 million bond for improvements on the Stockton campus, as well as expansion to Tracy, Mountain House and Lodi.
The college purchased 168 acres of land near Highway 12 and the Mokelumne River for $9 million in 2006 for a campus project expected to cost $17 million.
Just months after the property was purchased, Delta officials revealed that the Mountain House project, originally expected to cost $50 million, had tripled.
A year later, the school purchased $140 million of property near Highway 99 and Liberty Road in Galt for $2 million.
However, due to dwindling Measure L funds, trustees opted to suspend a Lodi campus in 2011. The following year, the board allocated $15 million in Measure L contingency funds to build a campus in Galt.
Plans for a campus in both cities were then suspended in 2017.
Chris Nguyen, the college's vice president of administrative services, said there is now just a little less than $4 million in Measure L contingency funds that could help build instructional space of as much as 50,000 square feet in Galt or Lodi.
And while a new campus in the north part of San Joaquin County is still something school officials would like to see happen, Nguyen said unforeseen circumstances could once again arise.
“While we wanted to use some of that (Measure L) money to expand and increase our footprint, we do realize that unexpected events could occur,” he said. “And there may be slow downs in development that may shape what we do in terms of deciding projects and facilities."
Nguyen noted the college has several projects waiting in the wings, such as existing building renovations and installing solar technologies on the Stockton and Mountain House campuses.
In addition, he said the school's master plan recommends an animal husbandry facility in Manteca as well.
Charles Jennings, Lodi's representative on the board, favored exploring a north county campus, but suggested the college be prepared to again put those plans on hold.
“I would say let's do this, and if it looks like we have some capacity to begin some work in Mountain House, in light of a new state bond coming up, that we be as ready as we can to move in that direction,” Jennings said. “I think that would be money well spent.”
Delta spokesman Alex Breitler on Wednesday said the board last month directed staff to explore the possibility of proposing a new bond in the upcoming November election, which would be used to construct new facilities and improve existing ones.
However, he said no final decision has been made to actually put a bond measure on the ballot.
“No decision has been made about the potential size of any bond, and no decision has been made on specific projects to build should a bond be proposed and approved by voters,” he said. “We will be looking at these issues closely over the next several months. A final decision on whether to propose a bond is not expected until May.”
Trustee Carlos Huerta, who represents Central Stockton on the board, was absent from Tuesday's meeting.