I’m trying to get all my McCallister Ranch stories together here. But can’t find a link to the original on Bakersfield.com.

Either way, here’s the first story:

May 23, 2011

Bakersfield Californian

By LOIS HENRY

Californian staff writer

e-mail: lhenry@bakersfield.com

McAllister Ranch, the iconic failed housing development of the foreclosure crisis, has found new life.

It will become Kern County’s newest water bank, owned and managed jointly by the Rosedale Rio Bravo and Buena Vista water storage districts.

The 2,070 acre development in extreme southwest Bakersfield was once expected to boast 6,000 homes, a golf course and man made lake.

Now, the majority of it will remain undeveloped, according to Eric Averett, Rosedale’s general manager.

“It’s an exciting project,” he said. The water bank will be used to enhance local supplies, he said, instead of “buying into the very expensive state project.”

The unreliability of water from the State Water Project, the extreme cost of the proposed peripheral canal along with questions about how much water it would yield assuming it’s ever built make local banking “a very attractive alternative,” he said.

That doesn’t mean either district will turn their backs on efforts to find a solution to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta issues. But it doesn’t mean they won’t either.

For now, they’re focusing on how soon they could get water on McAllister considering the magnitude of water available this year.

“Ideally we’d like to do something as soon as possible, but we have to go through all the processes, including CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act reports).”

Though the majority of McAllister ranch will be used for water banking, Averett said about 600 acres — including the golf course designed by the famed Greg Norman — will be set aside for development as part of the water districts’ deal with seller PVCO Land Holdings LLC, which bought the ranch at a bankruptcy auction last month.

The water districts had put in their own bid for McAllister at that auction, which included two other developments in Riverside County owned by SunCal Cos.

But PVCO won out as they bid $71 million for all three properties. The bankruptcy assigned $22 million to pay off McAllister creditors.

A week later, PVCO approached Rosedale and Buena Vista with a proposal.

Rosedale and Buena Vista then bought the property for $22 million. They also gave PVCO a 4-year option to buy back and develop that 600-acre portion of the ranch that has the golf course, streets and some infrastrucure already installed.

But in the meantime, Rosedale and Buena Vista will get started banking water.

“It’s an ideal water banking property,” Averett said. “We didn’t think there were many opportunities like this left.”