LAKE COUNTY ? Two Mendocino College employees stood on the grounds of an empty field just off Highway 29 in Lakeport, discussing plans for a new permanent Lake County campus at the site. As they talked, a bald eagle soared overhead, talons clutching a bundle of branches. The bald eagle is the community college”s mascot.
“It”s a sign,” Mendocino College”s Director of Facilities Planning Mike Adams said. Dean of Instruction for off-campus centers Mark Rawitsch agreed, calling it a “significant omen” because not only is the bird the school”s mascot, but it flew right over the property and appeared to be on a nest-building mission similar to the college”s own goal: to find a new Lake County home.
But even if negotiations for the site don”t pan out, the college will continue its search for a permanent Lake County location, fulfilling a 25-year master-plan goal. The college began its search for a site last fall.
With UCs and CSUs curbing new freshman admission rates in the wake of budget cuts and overall escalating four-year education costs, students are turning in growing numbers to complete units at one of Lake County”s two community colleges. The property the current Mendocino College campus is located on is temporary, rented and does not allow for expansion to accommodate burgeoning enrollment.
Just down the road from the temporary campus on Parallel Drive is 31 acres of land the school is in negotiations for. The money to purchase the property comes from Measure W, a $67.5 million construction bond measure voters approved to help the college build new facilities and renovate existing structures. The new campus is expected to open in 2011 or 2012.
If state budget cuts to education continue, it could compromise matching funds the community college expects to receive, but Rawitsch said construction plans will go through despite shaky budget times. “The bond component is going through. We”ll be able to spend that money to get the project underway. The matching funds we”ll apply for in a year or two,” Rawitsch said.
A budget of $15,000,000 and “hopefully” $7,400,000 from state matching funds will pay for the new Lake County campus, according to Rawitsch.
Adams said to begin with, the campus will be “something slightly bigger than what we have now, with expansion plans built in.” But at most it could be up to 50 percent larger. “We”re planning a modest facility that we can grow into,” Adams said.
Rawitsch said there are still hoops to jump through. “State agencies are involved, and we”re just initiating the process for a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review and due diligence of the property.”
A contract agreement for environmental testing on the property has been signed by the property owner, and soil and seismic tests are underway, Adams said.
The site has had two appraisals conducted, one by an appraiser hired by Mendocino College and one hired by the property owner, Thomas Adamson, a Scottsdale Arizona-based developer. Adamson has proposed to build a 130-lot subdivision on the site, which is a total of 157 acres, according to Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) documents.
The subdivision plan, Adams said, is not going to conflict with the college”s plan to purchase the 31-acre parcel. He added that because the college is using public money for the property”s purchase, the offer the college made had to be based on and not exceed the appraisal amount. He declined to divulge information about the appraisal amount, which appraisal the offer was based on and what offer was made. But he did say college trustees have approved the purchase amount.
County assessor records document that Adamson purchased the property in May of 2005. No purchase amount was given, but the property assessment for the total 157 acres was $1.5 million.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
