In one of the most fateful decisions ever made regarding Isla
Vista, the UC Regents decided to leave the half-square-mile
residential section of the mesa for private development, instead
of buying it and building a university community of dorms and
apartment complexes. This greatly increased the value of Mosher's
property. Then they established an eventual enrollment of 25,000
for the UCSB Campus. To facilitate this development, the university
purchased much of Storke's property for $1.15 million. After
Storke kicked back half of this prize as a contribution to the
university, UCSB named the property, a bell tower, a building,
and a major academic achievement award in his honor.
The
announcement that UCSB intended to increase its enrollment ten-fold
touched off a building boom in Isla Vista and throughout the
Goleta Valley. Since it was estimated that four additional people
came to the area for each new student, it was obvious that there
was a lot of profit to be made in housing development. But money
was needed to make this happen, and for this the Goleta Valley
Savings & Loan was formed in 1962 - the same year that Vernon
Cheadle became chancellor at UCSB.
The 1960s Building Boom
The Goleta Valley Savings & Loan was a most unusual financial
institution. According to research done in 1969 by the investigative
Isla Vista newspaper Probe, the Goleta Valley S&L completely
turned around the national lending average. While the typical
S&L lent 15% of its capital to developers, this one lent 85%.
Also interesting is a partial list of the board of directors
of this S&L:
* Samuel Mosher, UC Regent and Signal Oil president
* Daniel Frost, Mosher's attorney and also a Signal Oil director
* John Harlen, local developer and Signal Oil's property manager
in Isla Vista
* Thomas Storke, UC Regent, publisher of the area's daily newspaper,
and the owner of significant property adjacent to the campus
* Bert Lare, Storke's general manager
* Vernon Cheadle, the new chancellor at UCSB
So, as early as 1962, the property moguls were getting ready
to create the modern Isla Vista, and the UCSB Administration,
a power bloc in its own right, seemed to be helping out.
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