DESERT PROVING GROUND OPENS HYUNDAI-KIA MOTORS CARS TO BE TESTED ON NEW TRACK.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

CALIFORNIA CITY - Korean auto executives Wednesday marked the opening of a $60 million proving ground that is providing 50 jobs and giving the Antelope Valley a high-profile foreign investment.

The 4,300-acre Hyundai-Kia Motors California Proving Ground opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, exchanges of tokens of friendship between South Korean and California officials, and the planting of a magnolia tree, whose blossoms are the official flower of South Korea.

For California City officials, the event capped a four-year effort to bring the project to their city.

``It's great to see the whole concept come together,'' said Jack Stewart, the former city manager of California City. ``It's good for the community. It brings in jobs. It's a joy to see it happen and completed.''

The proving ground, which will be used to test both concept vehicles as well as new production prototype Hyundai and Kia cars and trucks, is located north of Highway 58, about eight miles east of Mojave. The proving ground has a 6.4-mile oval track, a vehicle-handling course, a 3.3-mile paved hill road, a 2.75-mile winding road course, and several special-surface roads.

With the proving ground, Hyundai-Kia Motors now has concept-to-sales floor capability in the United States. The proving ground joins a design center in Irvine and a manufacturing plant in Alabama as new investments in the United States.

``Hyundai and Kia are committed to the United States, and this facility will help us design vehicles that appeal to consumers in this market as well as worldwide,'' said Dong Jin Kim, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Co.

California City Mayor Larry Adams said the proving ground illustrates the growing economic link between the United States and Asia. The proving ground will attract other interest to the region, he predicted.

``It's a huge investment, it's a beautiful investment,'' Adams said. ``It already is a catalyst for economic development. We have other businesses looking at us.''

The path from concept to grand opening for the proving ground was a complicated one involving a dramatic reshaping of California City's boundaries and legal wrangling over property acquisition and environmental protection measures.

Last February, two environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, filed a lawsuit claiming that environmental reviews were inadequate and that the proving ground could harm desert tortoises and Mojave ground squirrels.

In a settlement, Hyundai agreed to purchase additional land for desert tortoises that will be privately held and managed; dropped a plan to relocate desert tortoises into designated tortoise habitat elsewhere, which had raised concerns about spreading a tortoise disease; and agreed to place most of the area's affected Barstow woolly sunflower plants inside a conservation easement and to provide location details for a state database.

Hyundai purchased more than 3,000 acres to be set aside as wildlife habitat in exchange for developing the 4,300-acre test track site.

California City officials said environmentalists gained measures that will probably cost Hyundai about $5 million, including contributing $1.5 million to an endowment fund for desert tortoise protection and purchasing the conservation land.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Hyundai-Kia Motor Co. officials unveil a plaque at the company's new American proving grounds near California City.

(2 -- color) Hyundai-Kia Motor Co.'s new proving grounds is pointed out by a sign just outside California City off Cross Country Road.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer