PENDLETON — Plans for a new Tri-County Technical College are moving, albeit slowly.

The Commission on Higher Education approved the Easley branch campus, a $1.5 million project set to open off Powdersville Road. The 36-acre property is an effort to attract more students from the Easley and Powdersville area to the TCTC system while generating new and expanding programs.

First on the project agenda is a QuickJobs development center on the property, a joint venture between TCTC and Pickens County. The county received a $1 million Community Development Block Grant from the South Carolina Department of Commerce to develop the center, which the college would operate.

TCTC has to earn graces from two more boards before construction can begin. The South Carolina Budget and Control Board and the Joint Bond Review Board must approve.

Rebecca Eidson, public relations director for TCTC, said there are no funding plans or construction timelines finalized for the project.

“We’re just taking it steps at a time,” she said. “It’s just been going slowly through all the steps.”

The Easley campus is part of an overall objective for TCTC to establish branch campuses in all three counties of service. An Anderson County campus opened in 2007 for continuing education programs while the school has a Hamilton Career Center partnership in Oconee County with the goal of pursuing additional property. The Easley campus would have a health education focus, including dental hygiene and radiology technology.

While it will cost $1.5 million to purchase the property, with funds coming from accumulated capital from the college, school officials are seeking outside funding sources for further development. College commissioners announced the land purchase pursuit last May.