By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
Alpine is usually a laid-back country town, full of people that just want to escape the hustle and bustle of city life, and a busy workweek. In reality however, the community of Alpine often forgets they are not organized into a city, or even a town. Alpine is regulated by the County and is a mountain community with access ways that can only be described as mountain roads, dirt roads, and trails.
When Alpine was settled, it was not planned with the future in mind, regarding roadways.
By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
Alpine is usually a laid-back country town, full of people that just want to escape the hustle and bustle of city life, and a busy workweek. In reality however, the community of Alpine often forgets they are not organized into a city, or even a town. Alpine is regulated by the County and is a mountain community with access ways that can only be described as mountain roads, dirt roads, and trails.
When Alpine was settled, it was not planned with the future in mind, regarding roadways.
There are four major roads in Alpine: Alpine Boulevard, Tavern Road, Victoria, and South Grade Road. These four roadways make up a square, of sorts, that encompasses most of Alpine proper. Because we do not have a roadway grid, access to areas can be confusing, and sometimes lengthy or complicated. This coupled with the fact that many of the roadways are regulated by private property, adds to a frustration when Alpine thinks about expanding community facilities with things like a high school, a county park, or even businesses.
For example, Alpine has been struggling to install a high school. Part of the struggle encompasses the Grossmont Union High School Bond proposals that harvested almost a half a billion dollars. ($900 million between Props H & U and with BB passed last November including “State matching funds for new school construction”
When this battle was first thought to be won, the community was polled, asking where the high school should be placed. Some of the sites that were on the docket were: Wright’s Field, Lazy A Ranch, and Tom C. Dyke’s property on Tavern Road. Each site mentioned is private property, and in order to develop the sites, one of the properties needed to be purchased. Each site had individual problems that were reviewed including the status of private ownership, the access ways, and the suitability of the site to be developed.
In the end of this long and drawn out process that lasted over a year and numerous studies, the Lazy A Ranch property was selected to house a future high school in Alpine, and the property was purchased with Proposition U Bond funds. In order to purchase these properties, the Grossmont Union High School District had to ultimately use eminent domain rulings. This means that people had to sell their family homes for a high school that has yet to be built in our community.
The above struggle is very applicable to the current and heated discussions that are taking place regarding a possible upgrade to Joan MacQueen Middle School Sports Fields using PLDO funds (Park Land Dedication Ordinance), or creating a County Park here in Alpine.
On a recent “Ask Alpine” discussions broke out to the tune of over 100 responses to the question of whether the residents of Alpine would rather have a Sports Complex or a County Park.
The loosely configured poll showed that many in Alpine favored the idea of a Sports Complex, but it was agreed that a park with sports facilities would be ideal with the possibility of a pool. There was a decided opposition to imitation turf for parkland, as it was sited to be an unhealthy alternative to actual grass.
Currently, the parks available in Alpine are the Alpine Community Center Park that has been servicing Alpine for years. This park is located directly behind the Alpine County Library. (It is owned by the Alpine Community Center, a non-profit, not a government agency.)
When the Library was built, part of the existing park was used to make way for the large library structure. The grounds were upgraded with new grass, and the stage has been renovated. However the shade trees have been all but deleted. The upper level has baseball/softball fields and a tennis court. It is important to point out that it not a public County Park, even though one resident referred to it as the ‘back yard’ of the Alpine Library.
Otto Field is 100% maintained by its primary user, Alpine Girls Softball, and the recent major restoration was paid for by Girls Softball grant writing. Another known park in Alpine is the Boulder Oaks Park which is a grassy area with some facilities for child play, but no sports fields.
Many in Alpine wonder why our community, that contains over 17,000 residents, can’t enjoy a County Park of their own. After all, Pine Valley, our neighbor to the east has a beautiful and large County Park.
The easiest answer would be, Alpine does not have the same land layout as Pine Valley. Private parties own much of the open land in Alpine that could be developed into a park. Land in Alpine is expensive. Buying land in Alpine with water, power, sewer infrastructure ranges to $150,000 an acre. 10-times more than undeveloped property in Pine Valley.
There has been discussion of a property off of the private road, Olivewood Drive that was to be generously donated to the County of San Diego for a County Park. The access road to this property is not suitable for a large amount of traffic. Nor do some of the residents that live on, or own property on Olivewood want to give up their own property to make the access better for a County Park.
The County of San Diego reviewed this site and decided that it was not an appropriate site for a County Park. The County estimates for upgrading the private road to a standard County street were $2 million. Also, the property has been reported no longer available for donation to the County of San Diego for a park in Alpine at this time.
Another idea for a county park indicated the property behind Albertson’s. This property is small, but it is part of mitigation to the County for possible parkland that was designated when Albertson’s was built. Residents who border the lot of land in question showed up to Parks and Recreation meetings and presented their own case against a park on that land. The idea was abandoned as well.
Wright’s Field, another area that has been the topic of discussion for a County Park is a privately owned land preserve. Currently residents are allowed to enjoy the space, walk their dogs (on-leash), hike and horseback ride the trails there. This is not a piece of property that is available for a County Park. State, county and in some cases local school district conservation easements on the deed make any development of the field illegal.
The following is from the Parks Master Plan from the County of San Diego Website: “Given both the small count of facilities and acreage of local parks in Alpine, the CPA is experiencing a 22.91-acre deficit of local park facilities to meet the standard.” This passage can be found on page 148 of the County Parks Master Plan updated, August 2017.
The plan discusses vacant land in Alpine but also suggests that funding must be provided for construction and ongoing operation and maintenance. In Alpine’s PDLO, it was mentioned that there is approximately $900,000 available for a park. While this seems like a lot of money, it will not cover costs of grading, construction, water, sewer, power, access ways, and then ongoing upkeep in the form of a county ranger. Also, PLDO cannot fund property purchase, and cannot by law be used for any aspect of operations and maintenance.
There is a Parks and Recreation Committee meeting on September 14 at 6:00 p.m. at the Alpine Community Center. The Parks and Recreation subcommittee is an advisory group and part of the Alpine Community Planning Group.
The topic of discussion is the Joan MacQueen Sports fields’ upgrades. The project is now referred to as the JMMS Community & Recreation facility, intended for equal school and general community use. This is an open meeting and all are welcome to attend who would like to make your ideas known regarding parkland and the use of PLDO funds in Alpine.
