The Board of Trustees approved the second phase in its pre-development agreement with The Martin Group for the College’s proposed student housing project. The board reviewed and accepted the preliminary analysis, development schedule and cost budgets and authorized staff to issue a “Notice to Proceed” to the developer. The Board of Trustees approved the pre-development agreement at its August meeting.
In spring 2019, Napa Valley College contracted The Scion Group, a leading national advisor on student housing, to perform a marketing analysis to explore the feasibility of building student housing. Surveys showed that more than half of both full-time single students and full-time students with families were interested in living on campus.
Napa Valley College’s campus housing project started with development of the 2015 Campus Master Plan, a policy and land use plan that identified several areas on campus suitable for development of student and workforce housing. Since then the College has undertaken several exploratory activities, including gathering constituent feedback, collaboration with local government agencies and nonprofit organizations, and consultation with area experts and legal counsel to assess the feasibility of campus housing.
Eleven of the state’s 114 community colleges currently offer on-campus housing. Santa Rosa Junior College is in the development process and Orange Coast College’s student housing project is under construction. Student housing ranges from traditional on-campus dormitories with access to shared bathrooms to apartment-style buildings with private kitchens and bathrooms.
The developer for the campus housing project is The Martin Group and the architect is HPI Architecture, which is the lead architect for both the Orange Coast College and Santa Rosa Junior College student housing projects. The pre-development phase is anticipated to take approximately 18 months before beginning construction. Next steps include schematic design, design and development, regulatory approvals, and preparation of construction documents.
