Higgins Marketplace shopping center in Lake of the Pines received the go-ahead from the Nevada County Planning Department earlier this month. But construction likely won’t be completed for another two years or more, developer Fred Katz of Katz Kirkpatrick Properties said Monday.

The 83,722-square-foot development at Woodridge Court and Highway 49 is projected to cost approximately $22.5 million. Besides the 50,060 square-foot supermarket, there will be two multi-tenant retail and service buildings totaling 19,600 square feet, according to Katz.

Bel Air supermarket is the projected anchor tenant.

“Now that we’ve received the approvals, which included 30 pages of conditions, we are costing that out,” Katz said. “… Assuming Bel Air is OK with project costs and will be our anchor tenant, we wouldn’t be marketing for the smaller tenants until we started construction.”

However, more approvals and processing loom for the project.

“We have to get a 404B permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to build the new Woodridge Drive across the wetlands. That’s a process we couldn’t start until the Environmental Impact Report was certified.”

That permit likely will take six to nine months, he added.

Katz explained that as part of the development of the site, Woodridge Drive has to be relocated and rebuilt to meet turn-radius requirements.

“We’ve started (the application) process,” he said. “Once that is completed, we will prepare the plans and specifications for construction. The completion in permitting of those drawings is anticipated to be another six to nine months — so it will be somewhere between 12 to 18 months before we start construction. Twelve months from now would be Dec. 1, 2010, which is not a good time to start construction. Probably we’d start in summer of 2011 and open early in spring of 2012.”

Among the conditions passed on from the Planning Department was disapproval of a pylon sign along Highway 49.

“That’s something we are asking the (Nevada County) Board of Supervisors to approve. They’ll meet on that in January,” Katz said.

The project is also facing some opposition. South County Citizens for Smart Growth has filed a lawsuit contesting the EIR, which the group says is inadequate.

Spokeswoman Margaret Joehnck, who lives near Lake of the Pines, said the group was reactivated about two-and-a-half years ago specifically to challenge Higgins Marketplace.

Joehnck said she wasn’t very surprised the development received county approval.

“There’s a real bias toward trying to have development, whether it is wanted or not,” she said. “I think that’s what we’re seeing.”

Ideally, Joehnck would have liked to see the project turned down.

“We’d prefer not to have it all,” she said. “Whether this can stop it is the question. The lawsuit is about the inadequacy of the EIR, so they could at some point come back and make changes.”

Joehnck said there’s a court date after the first of the year to put the lawsuit on the calendar.

In the meantime, Katz is moving forward.

“Typically it would take 12 months to resolve that suit,” he said. “Since we wouldn’t be starting construction for 12 to 18 months, we intend to proceed with our Army Corps of Engineers permit and the construction drawings and permitting of the project. We expect the lawsuit will be resolved before we’re ready to start construction.”

Katz Kirkpatrick Properties, based in Roseville, develops, leases and manages shopping centers, mainly in Northern California.

A call to the Nevada County Planning Department was not returned as of press time.

Gloria Young can be reached gloriay @goldcountrymedia.com.