DELAYS LIKELY FOR CASTAIC CAMPUS HURDLES AHEAD FOR HIGH SCHOOL.

Byline: CONNIE LLANOS 

Staff Writer

CASTAIC -- The $175 million Castaic High School, scheduled to open in 2010, could be stalled for several months because of delays in a related residential development, officials said Tuesday.

Hart High School District officials, who met Monday with Los Angeles County planners, said it was unlikely the site would be ready by next March, when groundbreaking was tentatively scheduled.

The high school site was donated to the district by SunCal -- which is building the 3,700-home NorthLake project -- in lieu of developer fees. However, the district must wait for SunCal to get all of its permits approved before school construction can proceed.

"The district is not dragging its feet. We are ready to go. But at this point, we do not have the control," Hart district spokeswoman Pat Willett said.

The announcement is a blow to residents of Castaic, who have long demanded a neighborhood high school for their children.

In fact, local residents had been preparing for today's meeting of the county Planning Commission, which had been scheduled to consider the SunCal plan.

The Hart district is considering three other sites as alternatives, but officials said changing the location now would delay the school's construction by at least a year and would cost taxpayers some $2 million.

"We are really relying on SunCal at this point," Willett said.

Mike Walline, division president for SunCal, said the company still hopes to get the high school opened on schedule.

"We have mapped out the time frame with the Hart district and have identified that overall time frame to take approximately 9-12 months to complete all necessary improvements to not impede the high school being open in 2010," Walline said.

But county officials said delays in issuing construction permits are common and have delayed similar projects for months.

The NorthLake project was originally approved by the county in 1992, but several plan changes made by SunCal required the county to start the review process over again.

"It is difficult to predict an outcome," said Paul Novak, an aide to Supervisor Michael Antonovich, whose district includes Santa Clarita.

Novak said Antonovich has suggested the district again consider other locations, including the Castaic-Mesa site, owned by Lennar, which the supervisor recommended to the district in February.

"Everyone wants a high school in Castaic ... The challenge is you can't separate the high school project from the SunCal project because the two are so inextricably linked," Novak said.

connie.llanos(at)dailynews.com

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