Bond sales will be spread over a decade or two. Funding through the initial sale of Measure HH bonds will fund several key projects, including new, affordable, student housing at San Diego City College, an English and Student Resource Center at San Diego Mesa College, a renovated aviation facility operated by San Diego Miramar College at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa, and the expansion and renovation of San Diego College of Continuing Education’s historic Educational Cultural Complex in the Southeast San Diego community of Mountain View.
Joel Peterson, SDCCD’s Vice Chancellor and Executive Operations Officer, said district leadership began meeting with bond underwriters, bond counsel, and other advisors prior to November to help ensure the SDCCD would be ready to move with a bond sale shortly after voter approval.
“The district has been very intentional and we’ve done a lot of planning to ensure that we minimize the cost to taxpayers and to maximize the return on their investment, and one of the key factors in that is time,” Peterson said. “The quicker we can begin these projects, the lower the cost it will be. By being among the first in the state to issue bonds, we will have less competition in the bond market and the interest rates will be lower.”
Of the initial $850 million in Series A bond sales, $725 million is tax-exempt, significantly reducing financing costs for taxpayers through lower interest rates while also minimizing tax burdens for bondholders. The district’s timeline had underwriters buying the bonds from the district this month to sell to institutional and private investors, with proceeds held by the San Diego County Office of Education until needed. Meanwhile, the SDCCD Board of Trustees is establishing a Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee including soliciting applications from members of the community interested in serving on the volunteer board. A planning, programming and design process will follow, with the design process anticipated to stretch into spring of 2026. Peterson said building blueprints would be sent to the Division of the State Architect to approve project designs by the end of 2026, with construction beginning in early 2027 and the first projects completed by the end of 2028 or the first half of 2029.
Measure HH will result in an added 2.5 cents annual tax burden per $100 of a property’s assessed value and generate average annual construction funds of $168 million for SDCCD, meaning a home with an assessed value of $500,000 would pay $125 annually to help finance the measure.