There’s a blue fence on the Citrus College campus these days, and that’s a sign of exciting things to come.

This August, crews began demolition of the Integrated Success Center, Liberal Arts/Business Building and the Information Systems Building to clear the way for a new Science Building and Veterans Success Center. This is the first significant construction project funded by Measure Y, a $298 million general obligation bond, which was approved by voters in 2020.

“This building will give our science students and our student-veterans a space where they can thrive and where our programs can continue to expand to meet their needs,” said Dr. Greg Schulz, superintendent/president of Citrus College. “I’m grateful to our taxpayers for helping us build a campus for the 21st century. The new Science Building and Veterans Success Center is fulfilling a promise we made to our voters and our students.”

The plans for the new building are ambitious: two connected wings, two stories tall and joined to the Education Development Center by a second-floor walkway. The building is designed to produce as much energy as it uses, thanks to a planned bank of solar panels and state-of-the-art environmental design engineering, making this a Zero Net Energy project.

A building years in the making

For now, work is underway to clear the site and prepare it for construction. This phase is expected to last approximately five to six months. What follows, pending final approval by the California Division of the State Architect, is the construction phase of the new building, a process expected to take about two and a half years.

When it’s finished, the new building will give the college’s physical sciences, chemistry, physics, geology and other programs modern labs and classrooms built for hands-on learning. It will also become the new home of the Veterans Success Center, bringing military-connected students into a designated wing of the building, to support our student-veterans as they pursue their path to a degree or a transfer.

Pardon our dust

None of this happens without some minor inconveniences along the way. The work is confined within a fenced-off zone for work and staging of equipment and materials, off-limits to anyone that is not affiliated with the construction project. Fresh signage is going up around the construction zone to help students and visitors find their way as familiar paths shift.

Behind the scenes

Balfour Beatty Construction, LLC, was awarded the design-build contract for the project. Under a design-build approach, Balfour Beatty and a team of designers and engineers from Westberg White Architecture work side by side from the start, coordinating design and construction plans together rather than in separate stages. This type of collaboration is expected to save time and money, helping ensure taxpayer dollars go further.

Measure Y is also supporting several other major facilities projects, which will reshape the Citrus College campus in the years to come.

In other bond news, the final project proposal for the new Career Technical Education Building has been approved by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. With voters’ approval of Proposition 2, a statewide education facilities bond passed in November 2024, the college expects to receive $47 million in state capital outlay matching funds to support the Measure Y dollars already allocated to that project.