Only 30 acres of land usable

Despite requests from private developers for a piece of the property, University officials still are asking for the entire Navy site on Prince Avenue.

Meanwhile, the funding for the University’s proposed health sciences campus remains up in the air.

Hank Huckaby, a member of the group in charge of deciding the site’s fate, answered questions and concerns about the University’s proposal from members of the Facilities Committee of the University Council Wednesday.

“Everybody would like to have certainty on everything all the time,” Huckaby said at the meeting, noting that Local Redevelopment Authority will not make its final decision until April 18.

Huckaby, a retired senior vice president for finance and administration, led the development of the University’s proposal.

He said the University needs the entire 58-acre site because the actual amount of usable land is around 30 acres.

“It’s a wedge-shaped piece of property and if you start clipping off some parts for mixed-use, it gets smaller and smaller,” Huckaby said.

The roads on the site would have to be refinished and parking areas would have to be relocated – much of this planned around the site’s historic buildings, which cannot be removed, Huckaby said.

Huckaby said the University is “open to negotiations and discussions” with local homeless assistance groups that also have asked for a chunk of the site.

In many cases, it is not unusual for the homeless shelters to be moved offsite, he said.

The University would pay for “services and needs” for the homeless shelters if the groups were moved offsite, Huckaby said.

But the biggest question for several members of the committee centered around funding for the proposed campus.

“We feel pretty good about where we are,” Huckaby said. “The governor is behind it.”

Gov. Sonny Purdue set aside $3.8 million in his budget to pay for the costs of the campus, Huckaby said.

But the Local Redevelopment Authority will not know if the University will receive the money for the site until the final state budget is passed by the legislature – probably at the end of the session in April, Huckaby said.

Even if the University is granted its request for the entire site, it’s possible the campus wouldn’t be up and operating until March of 2011, when the base is scheduled to close, Huckaby said.

“There are some rumors it could be delayed,” he said. “It’s hard to plan when you may not get the site until 2011.”