New Highway from Los Angeles County to San Bernardino County Would Increase Land Values on Antelope Valley’s East Side

There has been a proposal for a High Desert Corridor Highway (E 220) of approximately sixty three miles from Hwy 15 (SR-18) in San Bernardino to Palmdale Ca. (SR-14). This will greatly enhance access between the two major cities of Palmdale and Victorville, Ca. as the current thru road is Hwy 138 which is a two lane road. The High Desert Corridor Joint Power Authority (HDCJPA) is administering the project and it is currently in the environmental phase. The HDC will construct this new 60 mile east west expressway and likely a truck toll facility between Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties within the decade. The highway segment would be an eight lane freeway and it includes a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction from SR-14 past the Palmdale Airport to 50th St East along an alignment paralleling Ave P-8 in Palmdale, Ca. It may have to drop to Ave Q to pass Lake Los Angeles and reconnect to P-8 once near Palmdale. Most of the land along Ave P-8 is open space without any road access. It also looks like it will run north south along 50th street East up to Ave E and then run to Ave D (Hwy 138) west of Hwy 14. The exact details of the road route are not totally specific on the land targeted. It may still be under review while the environmental phase continues. In 2009, the Metro Board approved $500,000 for the HDCJPA to support the agency’s efforts. Measure R provided $33 million for environmental clearance. The City of Victorville received an $800,000 federal earmark which was transferred to the HDCJPA for the project. These funds will be used for the environmental clearance. The environmental clearance phase is scheduled to be completed by 2013 and construction completed by 2020. It looks like they will need additional funds for the construction phase.

An eight lane expressway will need to take a considerable amount of space along Ave P8 where land values are at there ten year lows. There are also opportunities along Ave E between Hwy 14 and 50th Street East. The project is not fully approved and technically it has not begun but buying land on the far-east side along this freeway route looks like a good long term investment in our opinion. As buying low priced land and holding it for long term investment is the essence of land banking. Even if the proposed route changes the land prices on Antelope Valley’s east side are currently very low. If you are interested in low price land opportunities then contact us for potential land banking acquisitions.