Board receives five‑year CIP and grants preliminary approval for one‑time projects

The Board of Supervisors received and filed the Santa Barbara County five‑year capital improvement program (CIP) for fiscal years 2025–26 through 2029–30 and granted preliminary, nonbinding conceptual approval for recommended one‑time discretionary allocations. The FY25‑26 program highlighted roughly $109.73 million in proposed work across General Services, Public Works and Community Services (parks), including deferred maintenance, energy and resilience projects.

Highlights: Staff emphasized work completed in 2024–25 (courthouse roof, water loop, Laguna Sanitation upgrades, Goleta BESS project permitting and other energy projects). The CIP process used a steering committee scoring model and targeted a one‑time discretionary allocation of roughly $10 million (drawn from available savings) divided among departments based on formula and priority scoring.

Board discussion and priorities: Supervisors asked for continued attention to deferred maintenance and to maintain or improve pavement condition indices (PCI) in transportation assets. Supervisors also discussed climate and electrification priorities; staff confirmed energy and decarbonization criteria were applied. The Board approved receiving and filing the plan, gave preliminary conceptual approval for the listed projects, and referred items for Planning Commission review where required.

What’s next: Staff will proceed with design and project initiation as funding allows, refer projects to Planning Commission per government code, and return with project‑level budget and environmental determinations as needed.