CONSTRUCTION ON VAN DE KAMP'S SITE TO BEGIN SOON.

Byline: -- Jason Kandel

Steve Maradian, the president of the Los Angeles Community College District, is in charge of overseeing a $50-million project to convert the historic Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakery site in Atwater Village into a new satellite campus.

He hopes that by the fall of 2009, the site will hold some 4,000 students who will be receiving basic job skills training, a much-needed option for a heavily Latino district.

Some classes will be offered at as little as $20 a unit.

Others will be offered free of charge, Maradian says.

The site has sat vacant for about two decades and some residents have been a little steamed lately over whether the project will really be taking off.

Weeds are climbing up a chain link fence. Trash is piling up on the sidewalk.

And on a recent day, a big rig -- sans trailer, a mini RV, and a roach coach sat near the curb.

Maradian says the project has been mired in bureaucracy, and a quake fault line was recently discovered near the site, adding a new list of requirements to stabilize the building.

But hopefully, if everything goes smoothly, a ground-breaking will occur in as little as three months, he says. He promises to work closely with surrounding residents to reduce impacts of increased traffic, and he even praised the local Coalition to Save Van de Kamp for helping keep the district on track.

Officials will preserve the historic building, add a lane to the nearby Glendale Freeway and have bus service to shuttle students to the campus.

Now with all that in mind, I want to hear from readers on valleynews.

com about how you feel about the project.