BOB WILSON, Valley Press Staff Writer

March 20, 2005

Ritter Ranch returns after 8-year hiatus

PALMDALE - Representatives of SunCal Companies, the new corporate owner of Ritter Ranch, will join city officials in an April 5 ceremony to mark the restart of work on the master-planned community in the Leona Valley area. The event will herald the end of an eight-year delay for the 7,200-home project, Palmdale spokeswoman Barbara La Fata said.

-

The groundbreaking event is being planned in conjuncton with Frank Faye, president of SunCal Companies' Los Angeles/Ventura Division, La Fata said. The ceremony will take place at a so-called "bridge to nowhere," a 90-foot-wide stone-facade span completed in 1996 at 40th Street West and Elizabeth lake road that was to serve as the primary entrance for Ritter Ranch. Faye said the recent legal move "cleared the way to begin development on what will become the Antelope Valley's premiere master-planned community."

-

"Development of Ritter Ranch will help alleviate the region's housing shortage," Faye said. "Our goal is to create a premium master-planned community that will offer a superior lifestyle," he said. According to the company's Web site, it will initiate construction early this year on the first of 7,200 planned homes, a golf course, an equestrian center, two lakes, approximately 100 acres of improved parkland, six schools and an amphitheater.

The first residents could begin living in Ritter Ranch by the end of 2005, with development continuing over the next decade, the company's information showed.

-