College of the Desert shared latest timeline for West Valley Campus in virtual forum

College of the Desert officials are sharing the latest timeline for their planned Palm Springs campus.

In an online forum open to the public, College of the Desert officials confirmed they are currently in their programming phase of the West Valley Campus.

The next step involves drafting and finalizing design plans as part of phase one.

"What will emerge on the other side of schematic design will be photorealistic renderings of what the buildings and campus looks like," says Mitch Fine, from architect firm, WRNS Studio.

The designs will then be submitted to the Department of State Architecture for approval, a process that can take anywhere from six months to a year.

Once the plans are approved the campus then enters a bidding phase, followed by construction.

Mac McGinnis, Construction Consultant for College of the Desert says, "We're anticipating about 2 years of construction, it's a large project, it covers a large site so we're showing completion there late 2026."

Officials estimate phase one will cost approximately 280 million dollars.

The online forum also reviewed the square footage required for all programs within phase one development.

"As you can see, the largest of these are really your instructional classrooms. You also have very large academic support, student services, good digital media, the culinary management. Essentially, your signature programs are by far the largest of all the spaces that makes up phase one," says Debbie Water, of WRNS Studio.

A board of trustees meeting is scheduled for September 16.

The College of the Desert is also giving people a chance to fill out a survey to provide feedback on the West Valley Campus in Palm Springs.

You can find that survey here.

They'll be addressing that survey in their next board meeting.