Illustration: High Desert Corridor alternatives represented by orange dotted lines. (metro.net/hdc)

Communities that populate a stretch of high desert between the Antelope Valley and Victor Valley will have a chance to weigh in at public meetings next week on the environmental impact study of a 63-mile freeway corridor proposed to link the fast-growing areas.

At issue is traffic safety and the growing need to move goods through the region.

The four meetings will be held in the evening, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., on Monday in Lancaster, on Tuesday in Lake Los Angeles,  Wednesday in Apple Valley and Thursday in Adelanto.

Worth noting: the Apple Valley meeting on Wednesday will be webcast live on Ustream. Link to it from the High Desert Corridor project pages on metro.net. The HDC live stream will enable everyone to participate in the webcast to view live video and interact in dialogue sessions via online chat.

After the jump, here’s the news release issued by Metro.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and the State of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) are hosting four community meetings in April for the High Desert Corridor (HDC) project. The proposed 63-mile corridor to link Antelope Valley with Victor Valley is currently in the Draft Environmental Impact Study/Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS/EIR) planning phase.

The HDC project proposes construction of a new east-west freeway/expressway linking State Route (SR)-14 in Los Angeles County with SR-18 in San Bernardino County. This new freeway/expressway connection would link some of the fastest residential, commercial and industrial growth areas in Southern California, including the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster, Adelanto, Victorville and the Town of Apple Valley. In addition to addressing the issue of growth, the HDC project will address traffic safety and support the growing need to move goods through the region.

The following meetings are being held to present the information gathered during scoping and the environmental process now underway.

• Lancaster: Monday, April 11, 2011, 6 – 8 p.m., City of Lancaster , 44933 Fern Ave., Lancaster, CA
• Lake Los Angeles: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 6 – 8 p.m., Twin Lakes Community Church, 17213 Lake Los Angeles Ave,. Palmdale, CA
• Apple Valley: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 6 – 8 p.m., Town of Apple Valley Town Council Chambers, 14955 Dale Evans Parkway, Apple Valley, CA Streamed live – attend online! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/metro-high-desert-corridor
• Adelanto: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 6 – 8 p.m., Adelanto Community Center, 11555 Cortez Ave., Adelanto, CA

Content presented at these meetings will be identical and in the following format: Open house session from 6 to 6:30 p.m.; presentations from 6:30 to 7 p.m.; and questions and comments from 7 to 8 p.m.

For those unable to attend a meeting in person, the Apple Valley meeting on April 13 is scheduled to be streamed live on metro.net/HDC, making the meeting available for viewing and accessible for online public participation.

Special accommodations are available to the public for Metro-sponsored meetings. All requests for reasonable accommodations must be made at least three working days (72 hours) in advance of the scheduled meeting date. Telephone the project information line at1.888.252.7433 or the TDD line for hearing-impaired at 800.252.9040.

Project analysis reports from Caltrans, which include the scoping report and community feedback so far, is available online at http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist07/travel/projects/138hdc/.

For  information on the High Desert Corridor project, visit http://www.metro.net/projects/high-desert-corridor and www.facebook.com/metrohdc. Get timely updates: follow @metrohdc on twitter.com.