CAC approves 217-acre land purchase for Maricopa campus

Central Arizona College has chosen a site for its future campus in Maricopa.

The CAC Governing Board voted unanimously Tuesday to purchase 217 acres of vacant land south of Bowlin Road and west of White and Parker Road to accommodate construction of Central Arizona College’s fourth full-size campus in Pinal County.

“Certainly, in Maricopa, with the increase in the number of students in that area and the growth that is there, it’s critical that we establish a campus in that area,” said  Richard Gibson, CAC Governing Board president, prior to the board’s 5-0 vote to approve the $13.02 million land purchase.

The new campus will replace the college’s Maricopa Center, a storefront facility consisting of 2,640 square feet of leased space at 20800 N. John Wayne Parkway.

“Our leased facilities out there are at capacity,” said CAC President Dennis Jenkins during Tuesday’s governing board meeting at the college’s Signal Peak Campus in Coolidge. “We don’t want to lease any more space.”

The new Maricopa campus, as well as a planned campus in San Tan Valley, will be financed by a $99 million bond initiative that Pinal County voters approved in 2008.

Jenkins said the college has been looking at potential sites for the Maricopa campus for two years.

“We’ve been working on this particular site for a year and a half, as well as looking at some other sites,” Jenkins said. “It’s been a long process. And this will get us started on another campus.”

Central Arizona College is buying the land for the campus from El Dorado Holdings of Phoenix. The new Maricopa campus could be constructed and operational within a two- to three-year timetable.

“Utilities are already in,” Jenkins said about the area of the future campus. “Roads are already in. Those are things that make it attractive to us.”

Jenkins said one of the major advantages of the site, which is located at the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Bowlin Road and White and Parker Road, is its accessibility.

“This is a commuter campus, so we need to make sure we have sufficient roadways,” he said. Jenkins said the vehicular access is “very much in the future growth pattern of Maricopa.”

“As things continue to develop and growth continues to occur, Maricopa will probably continue to build kind of to the southeast, right along the Casa Grande Highway,” Jenkins said.

Commuters coming in from the south and east will be able to get to the new campus from the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, which intersects with White and Parker Road about a half-mile south of the site.

Drivers approaching from State Route 347 (North John Wayne Parkway) from the north and west will be able to access the new campus by taking either Smith-Enke Road or Honeycutt Road eastward and then by taking either Porter Road or White and Parker Road south to Bowlin

The future CAC campus will surround the site of the Legacy Traditional School, located at 40700 W. Bowlin Road. The charter school was built at the approximate center of the northern edge of the rectangular parcel that will form the boundaries of the college campus.

“Originally, we were looking at buying the whole piece a couple years ago,” Jenkins said.

“Legacy came in and bought that middle section. We’re still buying the rest of it, so we will still be around Legacy School on three sides.”

The CAC site is located diagonally across the Bowlin and White-Parker intersection from Maricopa’s proposed City Services Campus, which is planned for the northeast side of the crossroads.

Jenkins said the new CAC facility could include a joint library to be used by the college and by Maricopa city residents.

“One of the commitments that we have had from the city, almost since we’ve started, was they would like to do some co-locations with us, particularly for a new city library,” Jenkins said, adding that the city has acquired bond money to finance the construction of a library.

Jenkins said the college and the city will engage in discussions to finalize a development agreement, which could include plans for the college-city library.

The development agreement with the city is one of the upcoming steps in the process of building the new CAC campus.

“We can’t enter into a development agreement with the city until we own the property,” Jenkins said prior to the governing board’s vote on the land purchase.

Jenkins said the 217-acre dimensions of the new campus site will give the college plenty of space to accommodate its present and future needs.

“This gives us some flexibility,” Jenkins said. “I thought we needed more than 80 to 100 acres. This gives us sufficient land.”

The Maricopa campus will be the fourth full-size facility for Central Arizona College, adding to a roster of locations that includes the Signal Peak Campus in Coolidge, the Aravaipa Campus in Winkelman and the Superstition Mountain Campus in Apache Junction.

The planned San Tan Campus would be the fifth for CAC.

“We’re still trying to identify some properties in San Tan,” Jenkins said, adding that the college will decide within the next few months whether to pursue the potential purchase of state land or private land in the San Tan Valley area. “It will take six months to a year to acquire state land. To buy state land, you have to go through a public auction.”

Submitted photo (CAC campus is royal blue square parcel.)