Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : County to Buy 80 Acres for New Hospital : Lancaster: Board agrees to pay $11.1 million in land and cash for the proposed site of a new 165-bed facility.

A proposed county hospital in the Antelope Valley passed its final major legislative hurdle Tuesday when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of 80 acres of land for the facility in Lancaster.

The 165-bed hospital, planned at Avenue I and 27th Street West, will replace High Desert Hospital, which is too small to serve the area’s burgeoning population, county officials said.

“It’s poorly designed, it’s too small, they’ve been operating piecemeal to offer support services, which are in temporary buildings next to the hospital,” said Tim Moore, the county’s project manager of the hospital.

On Tuesday, supervisors agreed to purchase the 80-acre plot for $11.1 million in land and cash. The land is 40 acres owned by the county that will be handed over to the city of Lancaster and its Redevelopment Agency. The cash payments will come to $9.9 million.

The hospital will be built with state funds already approved for the project.

The new hospital--also to be called High Desert--was first planned in 1990, and it has been significantly scaled back due to shrinking budgets and opposition from the privately owned Antelope Valley Medical Center.

Originally, the hospital was to have 230 beds and a 30-bed prenatal center. The new design calls for a total of 181 beds, including prenatal care.

Moore said the county approved the site because of its central location and proximity to the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Also, a shopping center next to the property and a planned regional mall nearby are expected to make it easier to attract medical offices to the 20 acres of the site that will be reserved for private development to help offset costs, Moore said.

Construction of the hospital is tentatively scheduled to begin late next year for completion by mid-1999.