HARTFORD -- After 10 years of studies, City Council resolutions supporting and opposing different sites and neighborhood protesters, Three Rivers Community College will be consolidated at the Thames Valley campus on New London Turnpike.

The plan, developed by DuBose Associates Architects of Hartford, does not call for an extension from Route 32 to the back of Thames Valley to alleviate traffic on New London Turnpike.

Consolidation is expected to cost about $75 million and take three to four years to complete.

The plan also calls for the relocation of the Regional Vocational-Technical School to Mahan Drive.

"This is my recommendation," Gov. John G. Rowland said after meeting with Mayor Arthur Lathrop and Marc Herzog, chancellor of Connecticut's Community-Technical Colleges, at the capital Thursday.

"The governor and the chancellor have done the right thing for the students, faculty and the city of Norwich," Mayor Arthur Lathrop said.

The advantage of the Thames Valley site is the room the college will have to expand, the mayor added. Studies of the Mahan Drive site did not show that.

Herzog added that enrollment at community-technical colleges in the state has increased 24 percent.

Three Rivers is home to 3,600 students and growing every year, according to enrollment statistics. Certain areas of the curriculum, specifically technical courses such as nursing, have been unable to expand because of the lack of room and outdated laboratory facilities at the two campuses.

Grace Jones, president of Three Rivers, said the citizens of the region need a technologically advanced community college, particularly in the areas of nursing and engineering.

"I am looking forward to having a consolidated college in 2006," said Jones, who has been president for two years and three months. "That means we will have to move fast. Very fast."

Jones sent an e-mail to faculty, staff and student leaders almost immediately after finding out the news.

"For those of you who have endured the winding turns this journey has taken from the beginning, I want to say clearly that I believe that this will be the final word on the future of a consolidated Three Rivers campus," Jones wrote.

"We waited for the governor's decision for 10 years," said the Rev. David Cannon of Preston, a member of the Board of Trustees and an outspoken opponent of consolidating the college in Norwich, "and my hope will be that (his decision) is in the best interest of the students and the region."

State Reps. Jack Malone and Melissa Olsen, both D-Norwich, said the governor's decision was an indication that the will of the community had been heard. The next step for them, they said, would be to secure funding through the state Legislature as quickly as possible next session.

The state already has allocated $44 million for the revamping of the Regional Technical-Vocational School.

Thursday's announcement seemed hardly possible just five months ago.

On May 25, Rowland's office said he would look for other locations for the college, including outside the city, if the council opposed the Mahan Drive site.

Despite the threat, the City Council passed a resolution July 7, voting 5-2 against consolidating the college at Mahan Drive after residents of that neighborhood protested.

The governor did not back down.

An ad-hoc committee of Norwich city officials, led by attorney Michael Lahan, was formed to prevent the college from being moved from Norwich.

The council passed two resolutions in August, the first declaring the college should stay in Norwich and that the city would offer its services to the governor in finding the best location; the second calling for the consolidation of Three Rivers at Thames Valley. Only Alderwoman Jacqueline Plowden has consistently supported the Thames Valley site since joining the council two years ago.

Alderman Ben Lathrop, president pro-tem of the City Council, said there still are concerns about traffic on New London Turnpike and he would like to see a compromise that would lead to the building of an extension across the Uncas on Thames campus, which abuts Thames Valley to Route 32.

The road has become a main thoroughfare for Mohegan Sun traffic.

"I thought an access road would be a viable solution that would alleviate the main concern for those residents," Ben Lathrop said.

The mayor said he would have been satisfied with any site selected, as long as it was in Norwich.