Grant to Help Form Transit Network at CSU Campus

In a major boost to efforts to turn Cal State Channel Islands into an environmentally friendly campus, the CALSTART consortium has received a $1-million federal grant to help create a network of advanced transportation systems at the new university.

CALSTART, a nonprofit consortium of more than 200 companies dedicated to developing clean transportation technologies, learned Thursday of the grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The money will be used to develop business incubators--facilities designed to help small start-up businesses develop clean-fuel vehicles--at CALSTART’s offices in Pasadena and at the campus.

At Channel Islands, CALSTART has proposed using electric vehicles, fuel-efficient shuttle buses and a bicycle-lending program to ease congestion and help students get to and from the campus now emerging from the closed Camarillo State Hospital complex.

By employing such innovations, CALSTART officials said they believe the proposed “green campus” can become a nationwide showcase for advanced transportation programs while solving anticipated traffic and air pollution problems.

“It’s another major milestone in the plans to turn this into a model campus for the country,” said Charles R. Imbrecht, general counsel for the consortium. “I think what’s also significant is that it illustrates continued momentum in the development of the campus.”

The $1-million grant was shepherded by California’s congressional delegation--including Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley)--and comes through HUD’s Economic Development Initiative. The money should be available to CALSTART in coming weeks.

Imbrecht said the money will go toward renovating and staffing a 31,000-square-foot building leased by CALSTART at the campus. It will also be used to attract tenants to the Camarillo consortium.

Ultimately, CALSTART officials believe technologies developed at the campus will go a long way toward helping the university meet its transportation goals.

“What it really does at Channel Islands is help the new campus develop an industry that will help the green campus grow and become a reality,” said Bill Van Amburg, CALSTART’s vice president of communications and marketing.

The green campus concept arose last summer as university planners struggled with anticipated traffic and air pollution problems.

Under the plan, a fleet of fuel-efficient buses would shuttle students to the university from park-and-ride lots. And once there, students would be able to hop on borrowed electric bicycles or fuel-efficient trams to make their way across the sprawling 630-acre campus.

Officials say it is perhaps the first time in the state, and perhaps the nation, that a university has attempted to go so far to minimize pollution and traffic concerns.

That effort already had received much support, including a $13-million allocation earlier this year from the Ventura County Transportation Commission. That money will go toward a range of purchases, including a fleet of natural gas buses and electric bicycles.

Now CALSTART’s job, in part, will be to attract new businesses that can employ advanced technologies to make those transportation systems a reality.

“Part of the attraction of joining the incubator is that they will be able to participate in this grand experiment,” Imbrecht said. “We’ve said since Day 1 we just don’t want to help develop that plan, we want to help put the rubber on the road.”