Foothill-De Anza Community College District’s Board of Trustees has chosen the former Onizuka Air Force Station in Sunnyvale as the site for the new education center that will replace the district’s current campus in Palo Alto. The new center will focus on career technical education and will offer classes on early childhood education, pharmacy tech, emergency medical technician and computer education.
The district hopes to acquire the land by receiving a public benefit conveyance from the federal government which will effectively give the district the land for free.
“This is . . . a highly unusual and extremely fortunate opportunity to be able to acquire 9.2 acres of land in the Silicon Valley for free,” said Chancellor Linda Thor. “It’s just too good to be true.” In order to receive the public benefit conveyance, Sunnyvale must first approve an amended reuse plan to include an education center. A vote on this is scheduled for Nov. 15.
“I’m fairly confident . . . I think based on the comments I’ve heard on the dais I think we’re not going to have any trouble getting it approved,” Sunnyvale Mayor Melinda Hamilton said. Should the new reuse plan be approved, the district will then apply to the U.S. Department of Education.
“We’re very optimistic we’re going to get the public benefit conveyance. The Sunnyvale City Council and the Sunnyvale city officials are enthusiastic about the proposal,” said Thor, “We also have had preliminary conversations with officials at the U.S. Department of Education who have been helpful and appear to be interested in supporting the proposal.”
Thor estimates the public benefit conveyance process will take approximately six months and said she hopes the district will have title over the land by next spring. In the meantime, the district plans on hiring an environmental consulting service to ensure the site and future center complies with state environmental regulations.
The Air Force, in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for the former base. However, the reuse plan the Air Force was operating under did not include an educational center. Charles Allen, executive director of facilities, operations and construction management said he thinks the FONSI is still valid, but the city of Sunnyvale is taking steps to be sure.
Actual construction of the center is not anticipated to begin until the second half of 2013, and the center is expected to begin operations by early 2015. Until the new center is completed, classes will continue to be held at the Middlefield Campus.
Current buildings being used at the Middlefield campus, which serves around 4,000 students, date back to the 1950s and lack heating, air conditioning and proper ventilation. “It’s operating in a 1950s high school that was closed and the facilities are definitely not state of the art and not to the standard that either the Foothill or the De Anza campuses are,” Thor said.
The district estimates it will have to spend $5 million to demolish the existing structures on the site. The money saved as a result of the public benefit conveyance will be spent on the center’s construction. Overall costs for construction of the 55,000 square foot education center, amenities and parking lot are estimated at $35.6 million. All construction costs will be paid for by money raised from Measure C, a bond measure passed in 2006.
Annual operating costs, estimated to be $4.3 million, will come from the district’s general fund provided by the state of California. The district currently receives $1 million a year from the state of California for running the education center at Middlefield, most of which is used to lease the buildings from Palo Alto.
The former Onizuka Air Force Station is located near the junction of Highways 101 and 237. Light rail and bus lines also have stops within walking distance. Nearby businesses include Juniper Networks, Yahoo and Lockheed Martin. Chancellor Thor expects some of the classes offered to reflect the surrounding businesses saying, “It will be influenced by all those companies that are around it as well as to what kinds of continuing education or basic education needs their employees may have.”
The District’s original intention was to purchase the current Middlefield campus and build a permanent education center. This option was shelved after the Palo Alto school decided to retain ownership of the Middlefield campus to meet their future school needs.
“We’ve had . . . a wonderful period of time to be there and build up the education center, and so we were looking for opportunities to really either make it permanent in Palo Alto or look for a permanent site (elsewhere),” Board of Trustees President Pearl Cheng said.
Tentative plans have been made for what is called “Phase II.” This envisions acquiring a 4.6 acre parcel of land adjacent to the planned education center and the construction of a separate 55,000 square foot building. Currently there is no funding allocated for this project.
The Onizuka Air Force Station operated as a satellite communications center and was closed in July of 2010. The station was named after astronaut Ellison Onizuka, who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Onizuka had trained at Sunnyvale Air Force Station in preparation for the Challenger mission.
Thor has stated that the district will keep the monument to Onizuka and the other astronauts and plans to incorporate his name into the new center.
