A bill on Governor Schwarzenegger's desk could determine whether Chula Vista is a viable place for a new California State University campus.
The bill would require CSU trustees to conduct a feasibility study into whether Chula Vista should get its own CSU satellite campus.
Assemblyman Marty Block authored the bill. He says the ultimate goal is to transform that satellite campus into the 24th Cal State campus in the system.
Block says a CSU Chula Vista campus would keep more students in the region and create more jobs. There is a higher education void in San Diego's South Bay. Southwest Community College is the only large-scale college institution for students.
But the idea of building a CSU Chula Vista campus has languished for decades.
Four years ago the City of Chula Vista was spending more than a million dollars on consultants who were developing a university park and research center to house a CSU Chula Vista campus. There were high hopes it would be built on about 1,500 acres in the Otay Ranch area.
Those construction plans have since stalled.
It's uncertain whether the governor will sign the bill for a CSU-backed feasibility study. State education officials say the CSU system has been devastated by budget cuts, and any additional costs are likely to get shot down.
