PALMDALE CAMPUS PLANNED DETAILS OF SCHOOL TO BE UNVEILED IN JANUARY.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Saying they are committed to Palmdale, Antelope Valley College officials will present plans for a permanent south valley campus in January and will continue their hunt for interim classroom space.

The permanent Palmdale campus plans are expected to be reviewed by the state community colleges' board of governors at their Jan. 13-14 meeting. AVC officials are seeking preliminary approval for an 80-acre campus to be built south of Barrel Springs Road between 37th and 47th Streets East.

``There is clearly a demand for a south valley campus,'' said AVC board member Michael Adams. ``Soon the Lancaster campus will be built out and we will need to find ways to handle the overflow. The south valley campus is part of that solution.''

The Barrel Springs Road campus, located in the foothills south of the city, has been in the works for years as part of a housing development, but college officials have not had money to build it. Now they are thinking about asking valley voters to approve a bond issue to pay part of the cost.

College officials estimate it will cost $36.9 million to complete the first phase of the Palmdale campus, down from earlier estimates of over $40 million. The costs were lowered after improvements to plans for the supporting infrastructure, such as roadways and utility lines, said AVC President Daniel Larios.

College officials are looking at an initial campus that would handle about 3,000 students but would eventually grow to handle 10,000 students - roughly equivalent to what Antelope Valley College has now.

The ultimate build-out is estimated to cost more than $100 million.

Antelope Valley College had been looking for a site for a Palmdale campus since 1991. In 1993, David Bushnell, of Bushnell Binoculars, 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.

The proposed development, on 540 acres, includes the college campus, 847 homes and an 18-hole golf course.

To better position the college to get state funding for the Palmdale campus, AVC is looking at the possibly of holding a bond election in November 2003. The exact amount of a bond issue has not been determined, but one possibility being considered is a $118.5 million bond sold in four stages over 10 years.

The bond money will be used to refurbish the aging Lancaster campus and assist with the construction of the new Palmdale campus.

Originally, college officials had hoped to receive a slice of the funding from Proposition 1A, a $9.2 billion school construction bond approved by state voters in 1998. However, that pool of money has since been gobbled up by other projects.

To bolster its presence in the south valley, AVC leased the former Boeing recreation center at Avenue P and 30th Street East. The building, part of an aircraft modification complex owned by SR Technics America, has nine classrooms, a gymnasium and athletic fields.

More than 1,000 students enrolled in fall courses at the center.

SR Technics America, however, was forced to look for a buyer for the property after its business collapsed in a downturn in commercial aviation after the Sept. 11 attacks and internal problems with its Swiss corporate backers, SAirGroup.

AVC and SR Technics America had entered a three-year agreement, allowing the college to use the recreation center for $10 a year. As its business began to fail, SR Technics America exercised a clause in the agreement allowing it to cancel the lease after the fall semester.

``We took a risk; we knew that going in,'' said AVC President Daniel Larios. ``We went in with our eyes open. We didn't put a lot of money into it.''

If a buyer comes in to take over the property, city of Palmdale officials and representatives of Los Angeles World Airports, which owns the land the SR Technics buildings sit on, said they would encourage the new owners to allow the college to come back.

AVC is renting classroom space at Palmdale High School for its spring semester. The college will offer late-afternoon and evening classes at Palmdale High School beginning in February.

AVC is renting the high school classroom space at a rate of $458 a week for 16 weeks.

The number of course offerings in Palmdale will drop from 65 classes this fall to 19 in the spring. College officials said they will continue to search for room for Palmdale course offerings.

AVC officials were in negotiations for the use of a three-story office building at Palmdale Boulevard and 15th Street East, but those talks fell through.

AVC also will relocate its aircraft air frame and power plant program from an SR Technics hangar to Fox Field airport in Lancaster. The college has held that program at that location in the past.

Larios said the college has already looked at a variety of properties, including the vacant former Kmart building at Rancho Vista Boulevard and 10th Street West, but have not found anything suitable. The biggest issue is finding a location that has both classroom space and parking.