Mar 29, 2010

Mayor seeks federal funds for North AV

---

By: Brooke Edwards, Victorville Daily Press

APPLE VALLEY • Mayor Peter Allan has asked for $15 million in federal funds to help spur industrial development in North Apple Valley.

The town has big plans for its 5,100-acre North Apple Valley Industrial Specific Plan area, with studies showing 38,000 jobs could result from businesses expected to spring up alongside the Walmart distribution center. But so far those plans have been halted by a lack of water supply to the undeveloped area around the airport, with fire codes requiring extensive sprinklers in the large warehouses the NAVISP is designed to attract.

“One buyer has purchased, I believe, 1,200 acres and wants to put as much manufacturing under one roof as we were planning for the entire area,” Allan said, with that development essentially “shovel-ready” once the needed infrastructure is in place.

Allan said town staff has been working with Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company to design a system to meet the area’s needs. But he said the town has to fund installing that system, then transfer it to AV Ranchos and be reimbursed over time as the company gets revenue from new users.