ANAVERDE EMERGES SHOVELS TURN ON 'MODEL' COMMUNITY IN PALMDALE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, city officials and representatives of major home builders marked the start of the much debated and long-delayed 5,200-home, master-planned Anaverde community.

First proposed 20 years ago and formerly known as City Ranch, the project will put homes, stores, schools and parks on nearly 2,000 acres that until recently was cattle-grazing land in the Anaverde Valley in southwest Palmdale.

``The entire state is watching this project,'' said Bustamante. ``This is going to be a model for the state of California.''

The groundbreaking included the planting of the first tree in the center of the valley, which has mostly brown native grass and sagebrush. Grading work for the first phase - 1,400 homes - is scheduled to begin next week.

Anaverde LLC will invest $60 million in the first phase to begin site improvements, including widening a two-mile stretch of Avenue S west of the Antelope Valley Freeway, building an elementary school, and establishing a 10-acre park.

``We hope to make this project a world-class project,'' said Jim Previti, president of Anaverde LLC partner The Empire Companies.

KB Home, one of the United States' largest home-building companies, and Ontario-based The Empire Companies formed Anaverde LLC to develop the project.

Home prices are expected to range from $150,000 to $350,000, on lots ranging in size from 4,000 square feet to 27,000 square feet. Homes will range in size from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet.

The first homes will be ready to be occupied by late 2004, the developers said.

``Our market is the first-time home buyer, first-time move up,'' said Bruce Karatz, chairman and chief executive officer of KB Home.

First proposed 20 years ago, the project was approved by the city in 1993 after much debate about its impact on roads and city finances. The project stalled, however, as the Antelope Valley's real estate market went soft.

The community's master plan calls for shopping, three schools, riding and hiking trails, parks and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Avenue S will be the main entrance, putting the community as close as possible for home buyers' commute to jobs in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita or Los Angeles.

The groundbreaking drew more than a dozen pickets from a nearby neighborhood.

The neighbors were angry that bulldozers had cleared off juniper trees and other desert vegetation, scaring off wildlife, to make room for the two-hour ceremony at Avenue S and Tierra Subida Road, about a mile from the actual project site.

``They scraped the land for no good purpose,'' said Mary Dincau, who has lived in the area for 11 years. ``They just wrecked it.''

Developers said they own the land the event was held on, that it is zoned for houses, and that they obtained the proper permit to hold the ceremony.

Five companies will build homes in Anaverde - KB Home, Forecast Homes, Beezer, Pacific Western and Richmond Homes.

Empire's other Southern California developments include The Retreat, a 540-home project in Corona, featuring an 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus; and The Ranch at Moreno Valley, a 1,600-home development; an executive jet terminal in Ontario; and a six-story office building with two stories of penthouse apartments in Ontario.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only) Shovels are turned by Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledord, Jim Previti of Empire Cos., Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and KB Home's Bruce Karatz.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Project officials and local dignitaries turn out Thursday for groundbreaking ceremonies of the long-delayed 5,200-home, master-planned Anaverde community in Palmdale.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

Map:

Anaverde