SAN MARCOS - Palomar College trustees took an important step Tuesday night toward building a large satellite campus in Fallbrook when they hired a consulting firm to study the potential noise, traffic and environmental impacts of such a campus.

The college will not have the $100 million required to build a campus in Fallbrook unless voters in November pass Proposition M, a $694 million facilities bond that would also allow the college to dramatically renovate its main campus in San Marcos.

If the bond is not approved by the required two-thirds of voters, the study will immediately end and the college will only pay a portion of the $267,300 contract approved Tuesday with RBF Consulting of Carlsbad.

College officials decided to proceed with the study before the election because it is important to keep the ball rolling on a Fallbrook campus, said college President Bob Deegan, adding that he is confident the bond will pass.

The college hopes to break ground on the campus in 2010, with classes potentially starting in 2012, said Deegan.

The college acquired an option last year on an 82-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Interstate 15 and Highway 76. Plans call for 75,000 square feet of buildings in phase one of the campus, with a second phase of roughly the same size planned for later on, said Deegan.

"There is plenty of room to build a comprehensive campus on that site," said Deegan.

Initial plans call for roughly 3,000 students when the campus opens, said Deegan. The curriculum will likely focus on math, English, natural sciences and social sciences. A 400-space parking lot is also planned.

Kelly Hudson-Macisaac, manager of facilities planning for the college, said the environmental study will examine noise and traffic impacts during construction and once the campus begins operating.

The study will also determine whether there are American Indian artifacts on the site and whether any endangered species would be disturbed by the project, she said, explaining that college officials do not believe that the site has such problems.

The study will also examine how the new campus would affect the surrounding area, where a large housing development called Passerelle is planned.

"When you are dealing with virgin property that has never been developed, you pretty much always have to do a full environmental impact report," said Hudson-Macisaac. "We need to determine what impacts this will have on the area."

Trustee Nancy Chadwick said it is crucial for Palomar to move forward with a Fallbrook campus so the college can adequately serve the northern portion of its district.

"These things take time, so we need to get started," said Chadwick. "We should have done all of this 10 years ago."

A similar satellite campus is planned for the Poway area, but the college has struggled to find a site. The bond would also include $100 million for that campus.

In other business at Tuesday's trustee meeting:

• trustees adopted a $92.8 million annual budget that projects a $4.7 million surplus. Bonnie Dowd, vice president for finance at Palomar, said the surplus is the result of $5.1 million in "one-time" state money. When individual departments decide how to spend the extra money, Dowd said it will be added into the budget and bring the budget much closer to balance.

• the 350-member Faculty Senate, the 38-member Palomar Administrator's Association and the leadership of the Associated Student Government announced that they have all endorsed Proposition M.

• trustees hired Stephen Wilson of Temecula as a new campus police officer. Wilson, a recent graduate of the Palomar College Police Academy, will receive an annual salary of $47,244. Wilson brings the number of officers on the college force to six.

• trustees learned that the college will save $80,000 it would have spent on an election this November if any challengers had chosen to run against incumbent trustees Michele Nelson and Mark Evilsizer.

- Contact staff writer David Garrick at (760) 761-4410 or dgarrick@nctimes.com.