CASH WOES DON'T DOOM AVC PLAN.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - The 540-acre College Park housing development is still alive despite setbacks to a plan to build a second Antelope Valley College campus there, officials said Wednesday.

Money from Proposition 1A, a $9.2 billion school construction bond measure, has been allocated to other projects. However, there is still a possibility that there might be enough residual funds from the bond to go toward a campus proposed as part of College Park.

``Money is turned back in because projects are scrapped or they come in under budget,'' AVC board member Michael Adams said. ``We think there might be enough to fund us in the future.''

If there still isn't any money available from Proposition 1A, there is the possibility that another statewide school construction bond will go before voters.

AVC officials, led by interim President Patricia Sandoval, will travel to the community college chancellor's office Oct. 16 to discuss new criteria that will go into effect on setting priorities for the construction project. The new criteria, effective in the 2002-03 fiscal year, calls for evaluating projects on a ``least cost'' basis - their comparative cost per full-time student.

Such criteria favor construction on existing campuses and handicap plans to establish new campuses.

In the meantime, discussions are continuing among the college, the city of Palmdale and representatives of developer David Bushnell on the College Park project, which would build hundreds of homes, stores and a golf course in the rolling foothills of southeast Palmdale.

The development agreement will spell out the mechanics of how the project will be built and what costs each of the participants - the developer, the college and the city - will pay.

``All of the business terms have been worked out,'' said Michael Maas, the college's representative in the discussions. ``What is left to be done now for the balance of the agreement is the wording - the wordsmithing.''

Bushnell representative Jack Schoellerman said he did not have enough information about the funding issue to comment, but he did say the negotiations for the development will continue.

``The negotiations are at a delicate stage,'' Schoellerman said. ``I hope we will have a resolution soon.''

The proposed development, on 540 acres south of Barrel Springs Road between 37th and 47th streets east, includes the college campus, 847 homes and an 18-hole golf course.

College officials estimate more than $40 million will be needed to complete the first phase of the Palmdale campus. College officials are looking at an initial campus that would handle about 3,000 students but would eventually grow to handle 10,000 students - equivalent to what Antelope Valley College has now.

The ultimate build-out will cost more than $100 million.

Antelope Valley College has been looking for a site for a Palmdale campus since 1991. In 1993, Bushnell offered to donate land for the campus as part of a housing development.

After controversy over placing tract-style homes in what is now largely a rural setting, the Palmdale City Council approved a specific plan for the development in June 1999.