Lancaster Plans to Oppose Prison Construction : Corrections: Residents want to overturn a court ruling and hope for an immediate injunction to prevent any work at the site.

Encouraged by local residents, the Lancaster City Council decided Monday to join the county of Los Angeles in appealing a court ruling last week that upheld the state’s plans to build a 2,200-bed prison in Lancaster.

About 85 Lancaster-area residents attended Monday night’s council meeting to stress their opposition to the planned prison.

Leaders of the group said they hope the appeal will buy them enough time to wage a fight in the Legislature next year to halt the project.

But whether such a strategy would work remains a question, because state prison officials are pushing ahead with plans and expect to open bids Thursday for a contract to grade the 252-acre prison site at Avenue J and 60th Street West. The work could begin later this month or in early November, state officials said.

“The moment they’ve started with the dirt, it will be much more difficult” to stop the project, said Danielle Marvin Lewis, a Lancaster real estate broker who is leading the Antelope Valley group that opposes the prison.

Lewis said that in addition to the appeal, which could take months to resolve, she hopes the city or the county will seek an immediate injunction to prevent work at the site.

It remained unclear Monday night whether the city or the county might pursue that route.

At issue in the appeal will be the contention by the city and county that the state prepared an inadequate environmental impact report on the project. Last Monday, Superior Court Judge Edward M. Ross rejected those arguments, which made up the bulk of the legal challenge by the city and county.

The county has already announced plans to appeal.

The Lancaster prison is half of a 1987 “pain-for-pain” compromise worked out in the Legislature that provided for construction of new prisons in both the Republican Antelope Valley and heavily Democratic East Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles has a similar lawsuit pending against that project.

Last week, the Lancaster council had appeared divided on the appeal, with Mayor William Pursley and Vice Mayor George Root voicing concerns about the more than $80,000 the city has spent so far in legal fees. Root was absent Monday night.

Prison foes reacted over the weekend, taking out a half-page ad in an Antelope Valley newspaper and passing out flyers urging residents to attend Monday’s council meeting or call City Hall. City officials said they received 113 calls on the prison issue Monday, 103 from residents opposing the current site.