California Coastal Commission Approves 1,600+ Bed UCSB Student Housing Expansion

During a hearing on May 13, the California Coastal Commission voted to allow UC Santa Barbara to move forward with construction plans as part of their East campus housing project.

UC Santa Barbara asked the commission to allow them to tear down Santa Rosa Residential Hall to build four buildings in its place.

With permission being granted, the university is set to demolish the 412-bed residential hall and instead establish a four-building dorm room complex with 1,688 beds.

The committee is also allowing the school to go over the given maximum height requirements of 65 feet.

One of the buildings to be built is 85 feet tall, and another is 75 feet tall. The other two are set to stand at the exact maximum height of 65 feet tall.

UC Santa Barbara was further given permission to disregard the requirement to construct (if necessary) and provide on-site parking for cars.

Rather, future students who live in the complex will park in lots 38, 50, and 22.

Additionally, 1,688 parking spots for bicycles are being built.

The university is further planning to cut down 131 non-native trees. They will be replaced with 166 trees that are more adaptable to weather conditions like drought.

The school will hire an environmental researcher to make sure the new trees will not negatively impact birds in the area.

Construction for the four buildings will take around two years and will start in June.

A $566 million budget for the project was approved by the UC Board of Regents in December 2025. The initiative is being funded by both grants and financial support from outside sources.

The east campus project is the second half of UC Santa Barbara’s initiative to create 3,500 more beds so more undergraduate students can live on campus.

The first half was the San Benito project, of which construction began in summer 2025 and will be done by fall 2027.

The San Benito project should add around 2,140 student beds in a seven-building complex at its completion.

Before presenting and moving forward with the two projects, the university was originally planning to construct just one building with 3,500 beds.

But the school disregarded the plan and came up with the current projects due to concerns raised by students, staff, and local authorities about safety and overcrowding.