City of Santa Barbara Finalizes $135 Million Financing for Police Station and Park

This week marked the symbolic finish line for two long-range projects — the new downtown police station and Dwight Murphy Park renovation — which are now fully financed and can soon begin construction after the city approved a debt issuance of $135 million to cover the costs for both.

Both the Finance Committee and City Council reviewed the deal, which was explained in detail by Finance Director Keith DeMartini during hearings for both boards on Tuesday. The $135 million financing will be paid off with $8 million annually, to come from the city’s voter-approved Measure C tax revenues. This would still leave the city with an “acceptable level of debt” around three percent, DeMartini said. 

This debt issuance is structured like the 2009 financing of the city’s new airport terminal, with the city essentially leasing the ground under the police station to a financing authority, which then issues bonds to pay for the construction of the new station.

Police Chief Kelly Gordon described how the new, 65,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art station — with a community meeting room, shooting range, training facilities, fitness center, evidence laboratory, holding cells, and updated staff spaces —will finally bring the station up to par with the department’s new-age policing.

“We are spread throughout multiple buildings, which makes it very difficult for us to effectively deliver services to the community,” Gordon said. “Because that’s what it’s really all about.”

Plans for the $103.7 million station will put everybody under one roof, and could help solve the department’s problems with recruiting and retaining officers.

Together, the police station and park will cost $111 million for construction, with the park scheduled to be finished in March 2026 and the station slated to be unveiled a year later in March 2027. The debt issuance will also include a “capitalized interest assumption” of $15.5 million; a required project reserve fund of $3.9 million; a “market contingency” of $3.4 million; and a debt issuance costs of about a million. All told, the city is taking on a debt not to exceed $135 million.

With the money for both projects coming through Measure C — a one-percent sales tax voters approved in 2017 — city leaders are considering this as a follow through of election promises made to the community that the funds, while technically open to the general fund, would be used to update the police station and fund parks projects. 

“This action would be making good on the promises of Measure C,” said Councilmember Kristen Sneddon. “It’s a really important message that we make good on the promises of our tax measures.”

Councilmembers praised both projects, but dozens of members of the community poured out their support for the Dwight Murphy Park project, specifically the innovative Gwendolyn Strong Playground, during the public comment period.

The universally accessible playground, which would be the first of its kind in Santa Barbara, came as a result of a collaboration between the city and the community, with the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation raising more than $6.7 million and the city receiving $1.5 million toward the park renovations. In total, the park is expected to cost $27 million.

“This really is a model for positive and productive collaboration,” said Victoria Strong, mother of Gwendolyn Strong and executive director of the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. 

Dwight Murphy Park, formerly the city’s municipal soccer field, was established nearly a hundred years ago, but despite its popularity with sports leagues it has been left largely the same for decades.

The Finance Committee and City Council unanimously approved the debt issuance ordinance, which will take effect on October 17, followed by a competitive sale on October 21, and bond closing on November 4. 

“We would then have the funds available to move forward with both projects,” DeMartini said.