By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
On Saturday, January 6, the County of San Diego hosted a “County of San Diego Community Plan Update meeting featuring the Alpine Community Plan”.
Approximately 100 people attended this meeting that started at 9 a.m. at the Alpine Community Center. The agenda included an introduction and the establishment of ground rules for this meeting, which only requested that attendees treat the speaker and other attendees with courtesy.
By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
On Saturday, January 6, the County of San Diego hosted a “County of San Diego Community Plan Update meeting featuring the Alpine Community Plan”.
Approximately 100 people attended this meeting that started at 9 a.m. at the Alpine Community Center. The agenda included an introduction and the establishment of ground rules for this meeting, which only requested that attendees treat the speaker and other attendees with courtesy.
The goal of this meeting was relate information and to find consensus. The first two hours of the meeting included a presentation accompanied by a power point about the Market Area, Economic Profile, Housing, Retail, Office and Industrial features of the Alpine Community. Also, the PowerPoint included the Infrastructure funding considerations, the Mobility (roads, bikeways, transportation and trails) along with Imported Water, Sewer, Fire Protection, Electricity, Parks, Safety, and Community Health. The information presented during this portion of the meeting consisted of information gathered in 2015, with projections to 2017.
The existing conditions in Alpine regarding our Market area are featured strongly on Alpine Boulevard and Tavern Road. This is Alpine’s business hub, and the bulk of businesses are small businesses that include shops that employ 1-4 people. It is believed that small businesses do better, when they are near a larger business hub, such as small business surrounding a large market such as Albertsons. In Alpine there are a few large employers including; the Alpine Union School District, Albertsons, Baron’s Market and Viejas Casino.
A majority of the Alpine employed, travel to San Diego for their workdays with commutes greater than thirty minutes each way. Economically Alpine rates higher as of 2015, than the greater San Diego area. In the graphs that were presented, from SANDAG, over half of Alpine residents have an income that is 45,000 – 59,000 or greater. By the County of San Diego’s standards this would indicate that Alpine residents have a larger margin of spending power to afford improvements to the community.
Also, it was concluded that Alpine has a higher index of educated residents. It is the County of San Diego’s belief that with higher education, the economic profile is higher. The jobs in Alpine have increased since 2010, but they have not bounced back to the numbers of pre-recession. SanDAG is already identifying Alpine as an important growth hub.
The vast majority of housing in Alpine is comprised of single-family homes. The housing expense in Alpine as of 2015 show that more than 39 percent of residents are burdened with their housing expense. This is indicative of the fact that over 39 percent of residents pay more than half their income to pay for their home, whether it is mortgages, or rents. Housing is a concern in Alpine, and these figures do not factor in the latest rent increases due to the lack of rental caps.
The infrastructure of Alpine was also addressed in this meeting. The mobility in Alpine includes vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle access and ability. The County of San Diego plans to increase pedestrian and bicycle access in Alpine by increasing bicycle lanes, and have already added sidewalks to Alpine. Vehicle access, and roadways are a little more challenging as Alpine is topographically impeded. Interstate 8 makes up Alpine’s main expressway/freeway. Alpine Boulevard and Tavern Road are Alpine’s major roads, and Victoria and South Grade are roads that encompass the community. Because of the mountainous region of Alpine, the County has no plan to add any new roads to Alpine.
The issue of parks in Alpine was slightly discussed. The County identified four areas that had designations of park area, including the Alpine Community Center, Wright’s Field, Joan MacQueen Middle School, and Boulder Oaks Neighborhood Park. The County admitted that Alpine has a deficit for County Parks.
Crime prevention, through environmental design was mentioned. This is the standard that helps in planning where walking areas, bike areas, bus access and community progress are safest. Factors in this mindset include traffic speeds on roads, bike lane availability, placement of bus stops, vacant buildings that may encourage illegal activity, poor sidewalks or lack of safe walking areas, and adequate street lighting.
After the presentation portion of this meeting, attendees gathered into groups to discuss key elements to improve Alpine.
