By County News Center
San Diego, CA–Officials broke ground Thursday on a new community resource center for Ramona.
The $15 million facility will replace one that had been in operation for 35 years. The new Ramona Community Resource Center will serve as a one-stop shop for residents who need behavioral health, public health, child welfare, and self-sufficiency services like CalFresh, Medi-Cal, and CalWORKs.
The resource center will be built on the corner of 12th and Main Streets, next door to the Ramona Library, and will serve 5,000 residents.
The new building will be the latest addition to the Ramona Intergenerational Community Campus. A new 100-unit senior affordable housing complex is expected to break ground on the campus in late 2025.
The concept of the resource center originated in 1999. The Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of land from Caltrans in 2017 and a design-build contract was awarded to Nielsen Construction last year.
The new facility is designed to reflect the community and its residents and includes public art.
The center will also be built to meet LEED Gold standards. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. And the building will be zero net energy meaning it will generate more energy from the solar panels on its roof than it consumes when measured over a year.
The center is expected to open its doors late next year.
