Malibu's 'Glaring Gap' Closed: The History Of SMC's Malibu Campus

MALIBU, CA — The opening of the Santa Monica College Malibu Campus has closed a "glaring gap" for community college education in the city, state Sen. Ben Allen said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday. And closing that gap was an effort 20 years in the making.

Though it's been open since February, officials gathered outside the Malibu campus Saturday to officialy celebrate the facility's opening. It offers courses for college credit, career advancement and older-adult enrichment.

Additionally, the building will house a substation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Malibu/Lost Hills Station, tie in to the under-construction Civic Center Water Treatment Facility and offers 15 acres of park space.

The journey to the campus' opening took 20 years, Kathryn Jeffery, superintendent/president of Santa Monica College said Saturday.

"Great things happen when people and agencies come together to achieve things that matter to all of us," she said.

County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath offered a rundown of the history: The effort really took off about 10 years ago, when SMC leaders went to then-supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky about the project.

The idea was to build the facility on land owned by the county in the Malibu Civic Center. In 2014, then-supervisor Sheila Kuehl committed to the project, Horvath said.

The Santa Monica Community College District's Measure V, approved by voters in 2016, was one of the project's funding sources. The campus broke ground in 2021.

While the college portion of the campus will serve as a place for gathering and education, the sheriff's substation will also serve an important function. When it opens this summer, it will mark the first time Malibu has had a substation of its own in three decades.

Officials said it will mean an increased police presence in the city.

Sheriff Robert Luna said the shared-facilities model can help advance the idea of policing nationwide.

"I think this can be an example to the rest of the country: When you combine our public safety efforts with our higher education efforts, we can be looked at in a different way," he said.