WELCOME TO ANAVERDE FIRST FAMILIES TAKE UP RESIDENCE IN MASTER-PLAN COMMUNITY.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - The first families have begun moving into the 5,000-home Anaverde master-plan community on former cattle-grazing land in the Anaverde Valley in southwest Palmdale.

Some 7,000 home shoppers have visited or expressed interest over the Web site for Anaverde, where the first 600 homes have been sold and where the first 40 were turned over beginning late last month to their buyers.

``As soon as any of our builders here release a phase, they're sold immediately,'' said Debbie Coleman-Leitch, manager of sales for Empire Land, Anaverde's master developer.

Anaverde's first phase consists of 1,417 houses on lots ranging in size from 4,000 square feet to more than 7,000 square feet. Its districts are named The Meadows, The Groves, Parkwood and Arbor Place.

Prices average about $350,000, but range from the high $200,000s to more than $500,000, Coleman-Leitch said.

Tracts in the community are being built by KB Home, Beazer Homes, Forecast Homes, Richmond American Homes and John Laing Homes.

Among the first home buyers to move in are Adam and Michelle Cavazos, who bought a two-story KB Home house in The Groves.

The couple had been living in Escondido in San Diego County and he had been commuting to Santa Ana. When his employer, avocado packing house Calavo Growers, moved its corporate offices to Santa Paula, they went looking for a new home.

They looked for homes in Ventura County and Santa Clarita before buying at Anaverde.

``This was a good opportunity to keep a reasonable mortgage payment,'' said Cavazos, Calavo's logistics manager.

The commute is about 70 minutes each way, which is about what he had been driving between Escondido and Santa Ana, Cavazos said.

Many of Anaverde's home buyers are Santa Clarita homeowners looking for a larger, nicer home for the value, Coleman-Leitch said, but buyers have come from all over California.

Originally called City Ranch, Anaverde was approved in 1993 after much debate about its impact on roads and city finances. The approval came after the onset of Antelope Valley's deep housing slump, so construction was put on hold until the economy revived.

The original developer was KB Home, one of the United States' largest home builders. In 2002, Ontario-based Empire Land, a division of the Empire Cos., acquired a controlling interest in the project and, with KB Home, formed Anaverde LLC to develop the 1,985 acres.

Empire was attracted to the project because of the master-plan concept, an executive said.

``We were excited about building a community,'' said Ross Pistone, Empire Land's president.

Anaverde will contain about 5,000 homes, neighborhood shopping centers, schools, riding and hiking trails, a lake, parks and a public golf course. About 700 acres will be open space.

Empire officials are negotiating with the Westside School District to build the first elementary school for the community.

Empire officials hope to have the school completed by fall 2006, though Westside officials believe the school won't be ready until 2007. Anaverde youngsters at first will go to school at what is now the Palmdale Learning Plaza's campus near the Antelope Valley Mall.

A five-acre park is expected to be completed in September and a 12- acre park should be finished in November.

The community's main entrance, Avenue S, is to be widened to four lanes from the Antelope Valley Freeway west to Anaverde by the end of June, except for the California Aqueduct bridge, which is to be widened to four lanes by the end of the year.

A new street, called Bridge Road, will be extended over the California Aqueduct north of Anaverde and connect to Elizabeth Lake Road west of 25th Street West.

Plans are under way for shopping centers at Bridge Road and Elizabeth Lake Road, and at Tierra Subida Road and Avenue S, but when they will be built has not been settled.

The first 1,417 homes are expected to be finished within 18 months to 2 years, officials said. Empire expects to sell lots to home builders for the second phase beginning later this year.

Empire's other Southern California developments include The Retreat, a 540-home project in Corona, featuring an 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus; The Ranch at Moreno Valley, a 1,600-home development; an executive jet terminal in Ontario; and a six-story office building with two stories of penthouse apartments in Ontario.

In the Antelope Valley, the company is planning a 375-home tract in east Palmdale and 600 homes in Lancaster.

For more information, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Mayor Jim Ledford welcomes new homeowners Adam and Michelle Cavazos on Monday to Anaverde as Tamra Granger of KB Homes looks on.

Charles F. Bostwick/Daily News