News & Facts

LEED Gold At Santa Barbara Airport QTA

Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Airport's new rental car service facility achieves LEED Gold!

The Santa Barbara Airport’s recently constructed rental car service facility at 25 David Love Place
has achieved Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification. While vehicle rentals remain adjacent to the Airline Terminal, the ‘quick-turn-around’ (QTA) operation off Hollister Avenue replaces the rental car service area at the Terminal. The new 3.6 acre QTA facility includes
a 10,000 square foot light maintenance and support building, car wash bays, a fueling operation, and secure storage for more than 300 vehicles.

The rental car QTA was designed to meet LEED guidelines that include energy and water efficiency, indoor environment quality, solid waste reduction, renewable energy generation, and the use of green building materials. The QTA is the first Gold Certified LEED facility constructed by the City of Santa Barbara under the U.S. Green Building Council rating system for new construction (NC). This achievement took considerable effort as exemplified by being one of just 129 Gold Certified LEED NC buildings in California.

Environmental benefits of the QTA facility include approximately 60,000 pounds of carbon dioxide
(CO2) greenhouse gases were avoided by the use of renewable energy since mid-October 2009
when the facility began operations. Over 95% of construction waste was recycled or reused. At least
three-quarters of the facility’s energy usage is generated on-site from a 159 kW solar collection
system consisting of 816 photovoltaic panels. The combination of the facility’s efficiency features
and renewable energy generation translates to a 97% savings in energy costs compared to
traditional construction.

The $6.3M rental car construction project was funded from Customer Facility Charge (CFC) user fees. CFC’shave a cap of $10 per rental car contract per Civil Code 1936 which granted California airports the ability to require rental car companies to impose and collect fees beginning in 2001.