TEMECULA - A deal to provide land worth $3.8 million to help build a $75 million home-grown college campus was approved Tuesday night by the Temecula City Council.

Now the plan goes on to the city Planning Commission. Proponents hope to win construction approval in eight to 10 months and hold a groundbreaking soon afterward. City officials and the project developer hope to open the first phase of the Temecula Education Complex - a joint-use campus, plus apartments, stores, day-care center and other buildings - in fall 2006.

"An education center like this is monumental," Mayor Mike Naggar said during the council's review of the plan's development agreement and environmental document. After the council approved the development agreement, City Manager Shawn Nelson said the complex will benefit the area for generations to come.

The project would be built in two phases at the city's Northwest Sports Park complex, which has been used by nonprofit groups to stage rodeos, tractor races and other community events.

Plans call for the campus to include a conference center, stores, five-story classroom buildings, apartment and lofts, campus offices and a 24-hour day-care center. It would total more than 226,700 square feet and include more than 1,500 parking spaces and an outdoor grass amphitheater and stage.

The project, which is expected to take five years to complete, would employ about 150 construction workers.

The 150 permanent jobs that the finished school would bring would pump $5 million a year into the local economy, according to city reports.

The deal calls for the city to sell the 32-acre site to Capistrano Beach developer A.G. Kading for $3.8 million. But instead of Kading paying the city, the sale price would be considered a loan that would be forgiven in 55 years if Kading meets several requirements.

The campus at the north end of Diaz Road west of Interstate 15 would be jointly used by community and state colleges. Kading, city officials and project backers say the novel plan sidesteps a lengthy and difficult process to try to win state funding for much-needed college campuses.

Mt. San Jacinto Community College, Cal State San Marcos and UC Riverside have said they would schedule classes there if the campus is built. Kading has said vocational colleges might do the same. The three public institutions offer classes in Temecula, but they are scattered over several locations that officials say cannot handle more students.

The project would add nearly 10,500 vehicles a day to area roads and freeway ramps. It also would cause air pollution during grading and construction, and excavation safeguards would be required to protect any human remains or Indian artifacts found in the area, city reports state.