The Campus Development Committee has finally heard the students’ requests for more parking, more food services, and a better football field.

The committee is planning on constructing seven new building projects, although at present there is only funding for one of them – that one financed by private contributions, and state and federal money.

“The federal government does not provide money for the building of parking structures or PE facilities,” said Larry Serot, vice president of administrative services. “They will, however, give the college money to remodel the Physics Biology building into the new Science Center.”

The building of the Science Center is scheduled to begin in October. The first floor of the building is going to include a store where students can by food and snacks.

The school is receiving $4 million from the federal government and $1.5 million from the state for the project. There was also a $1 million private contribution.

The other building projects include: a parking structure, PE facilities, an instructional building, a student services building, remodeling parts of the Adult Community Training Center, and the Allied Health building.

The AH building would be three stories, housing the aviation department on the first floor, maintenance on the second floor, and the allied health center on the third floor.

These projects are not receiving governmental funding and may be financed by a local bond measure, which is now being investigated.

The bond measure would ask for Glendale residents to allow a bond to be backed by property taxes.

“Let’s say a Glendale resident has property valued at $300,000 at the time it was purchased,” explained Serot. “For each $100,000 they would be taxed $25, meaning $75 would be given to the school.

“This is just an example, but the important thing to remember is they’d be paying this tax according to the assessed value of the property, which is the value of the property at the time they they bought it adjusted 2 percent annually. The big difference is that the tax is on the assessed value, not the market value.”

GCC spent $18,000 to hire Gene Bregman and Associates to conduct a public opinion survey. Another $11,300 was spent to hire the State-Wide Information Systems for Demographics Services to assess voter patterns and trends.

The college has depleted all other funds and looks to the bond measure as a last resort. The bond funds would be utilized over a ten-year period.

“We are optimistic about the bond measure,” said Serot, “The L.A. Community College District was able to gain $1.25 billion with Prop. A.”

There are also plans to build two separate buildings with all of the student services located inside one and instruction in another.

Though the actual construction may be far off, the bond issue may be voted on as early as March of 2002.