Business Ventures Sought to Cut CSU Campus Cost

Cal State University officials want to cobble together tax breaks and other incentives to lure high-tech, research and communications firms into leasing part of the sprawling Camarillo State Hospital grounds.

Cal State Channel Islands President Handel Evans asked county supervisors on Tuesday to join in creating a new government agency with the legal authority to cut the cost of converting the shuttered Camarillo State Hospital into the county’s first four-year public university.

Although there has been no shortage of public support for the university, financial aid from the state is a different matter. Officials, in turn, are scrambling to pave the way for business ventures to help subsidize the cost of the new university.

“We need a revenue stream just to renovate the facility and accommodate our enrollment,” Evans said.

University officials propose leasing unoccupied buildings on the hospital’s 700-acre grounds to private companies to generate about $400,000 a year in income.

Cal State officials said they could then use that money to leverage between $35 million and $40 million over three separate bond issues in 1999, 2001 and 2004--money that could then be used to convert the aging buildings into classrooms, cafeterias and computer labs.

The bonds would be issued by an investment firm and would not require voter approval.

Cal State officials expect 6,000 full- and part-time students to be studying at the new Cal State Channel Islands by the year 2004.

University and county officials will meet over the next few months to develop the scope and charge of the new governmental entity that would work like an enterprise zone. Officials hope to have state legislation proposed in January that would formally establish the new government authority.

A few Cal State trustees have been tentative on the proposal to convert the closed psychiatric hospital into the system’s 23rd campus, saying that if the state wants a university, it should cough up the millions needed to fund it.

Officials say it will cost $11.8 million in fiscal year 1998-99 to take over the hilly Camarillo State Hospital site and relocate the existing classes and students from Cal State Northridge’s off-campus center in Ventura.

The Cal State Board of Trustees’ committee on campus development will consider approving a conversion plan in upcoming weeks. In September, the full Board of Trustees will decide whether to include Cal State Channel Islands in its 1998-99 budget.

In the meantime, local officials are scrambling to pave the way for business ventures to help subsidize the cost of the new university.

“It will take some creative financing, and we need to talk about that up front,” Supervisor Judy Mikels said.

Officials want to lease buildings to companies that would support the university’s educational mission, such as high-tech research and communications firms. They are also considering setting up a retirement community with special programs in geriatrics, nursing and occupational therapy.

Officials said the formal partnership between the county and university will allow them the legal authority to offer tax breaks to those companies that lease buildings.

“If we want to lure technology to the campus, there are tax incentives at the state [level] to do that, but we need the authority to get that kind of thing accomplished,” Evans said.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to usher the hospital conversion through the county’s planning process, supervisors agreed to spend up to $72,100 to hire a planner dedicated solely to the university project.

The planner, whose position would be funded through June of 1999, would work with the university on formal environmental studies and needed changes to county planning and zoning laws.

Even taxpayers advocates who keep a close eye on county spending applauded the move.

“The timing is now for the county to step forward and support the university,” said Michael Saliba, executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. “It’s time to send a clear message to the people of the county that the Board of Supervisors is behind this project.”