Satellite for MiraCosta College : Construction Is Go on San Elijo Campus

Construction of the much-delayed San Elijo Center in Cardiff, a satellite campus of Oceanside’s MiraCosta Community College, was given the green light Tuesday when the school’s board of trustees dropped the original contractor and hired another to proceed with the project.

The satellite campus--now a vacant lot on Manchester Avenue and El Camino Real in the Cardiff section of Encinitas--was originally scheduled to open to 1,500 North County students in the fall, but construction was halted for almost two years while the state appropriated money for the building and stalled again last week when the Zwick-Construction Management Services companies withdrew their $3.7-million bid to build the center.

Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based Zwick and the San Diego-based CMS construction companies requested at Tuesday’s meeting to be released of obligations agreed upon orally two weeks earlier because their bid was inadvertently underestimated by $180,000.

The seven-member board complied with the Zwick-CMS request and subsequently awarded a $4.1-million contract to Chamac Inc. of Escondido, according to MiraCosta College President H. Deon Holt.

Holt said Zwick-CMS, which claimed it mistakenly omitted the cost of building materials, was originally chosen for being the lowest of 10 bidders. Chamac was the next lowest, he said.

Holt said he and other officials were pleased that the project was under way, allowing MiraCosta to deliver on a 7-year-old pledge to residents of southern North County to build them a college campus of their own.

“It did not make sense to have a contractor on the job that was going to lose money,” he said. “The decision the board made is in the best interest of the district, and we’re anxious to see the construction get under way.”

Full Enrollment

Holt said enrollment at the campus should be at full capacity on opening day in the fall of 1988 without denting the 13,000-student attendance at the Oceanside campus and 40 other off-site locations.

The 40,000-square-foot San Elijo Center will have six buildings housing a library, 30 classrooms, science laboratories and an administrative complex, Holt said.

Ever since the MiraCosta Community College District purchased the land in 1980, officials have touted the location, a half mile east of Interstate 5, as perfect for commuters who travel on the highway from the San Dieguito and Del Mar-Rancho Santa Fe areas.

MiraCosta also hopes the new satellite campus will attract high school graduates from the San Dieguito area who traditionally have commuted to Palomar Community College in San Marcos.

Holt said he does not anticipate any more delays and hopes the construction will remain on schedule because the center--which will replace a satellite-campus currently housed in the former Del Mar Shores Elementary school--is urgently needed.

“Our lease expires on the elementary school in July, 1988. We can renew it, but hopefully we won’t have to,” he said.

Founded in 1934

MiraCosta College was founded in 1934 under the name of Oceanside-Carlsbad College. The school currently has 105 instructors and offers courses ranging from a traditional freshman and sophomore transfer program to adult education and self-improvement seminars.

Because many of the students and instructors are expected to commute by car between the Cardiff and Oceanside campuses, planners have taken care not to create additional traffic problems in the already congested area, Holt said.

“We’ve analyzed the traffic situation very well in our planning. We’ve been very involved in the improvement of adjacent streets (to the San Elijo Center). Courses will be scheduled for times so that the direction of travel will not conflict with the direction of rush hour traffic,” Holt said.