ENVIRONMENTALISTS SUE TO BLOCK ALPINE COMMUNITY PARK'S SPORTS COMPLEX

By Miriam Raftery

January 11, 2024 (Alpine) – Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Superior  Court on January 5 against San Diego County. The suit filed by Cleveland National Forest Foundation and California Native Plant Society contends that the county failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act when supervisors approved an environmental impact report in December for Alpine’s first community park. The Alpine Community Park, adjacent to Cleveland National Forest and Wright’s Field, would include a sports complex and more.

The County purchased 98 acres in 2019 from the Wright’s Field Partnership LLC, then held five community meetings from 2021-2023 to get public input into design of the multi-use park. The County drew many comments in support of the park, but also hundreds opposed.  Changes to original plans addressed some concerns, but others remain. The project would include 25 acres for organized activities and 73 acres open to the public and also used as a nature preserve.

Marcus Lubich, project manager, notes in a video on the county’s webpage on the park that Alpine doesn’t have any sports fields open to the public, only fields on school property. The new park would include pickleball courts, a Little League baseball field, basketball court, equestrian staging areas, trail connections,  two playgrounds, a paved all-wheel park for bikers, scooters, skaters, and wheelchairs, a bicycle skills park, off-leash dog park, picnic tables, community garden, restrooms, parking, and multi-use area for gatherings, kite-flying and more.  “There’s something for everyone,” Lubich says.

The park is slated to break ground this spring with completion of phase one expected in winter 2025; a second phase would follow unless a court blocks construction.

“This project would do direct harm to the unusually fragile biological resources of this unique area,” says Jane Clark-Sanders, president of the Cleveland National ForestFoundation. “It defies logic to place this oversized sports complex in such a rural area...”  She cites specific concerns for three sensitives species on the site: the federally endangered Quino Checkerspot butterfly, as well as the Western Spadefoot Toad and the pallid bat, both California species of concern. The latter is the state bat found only on two sites in San Diego County.

Nick Jensen, conservation program director at California Native Plant Society, notes that the project site is primarily comprised of native grassland supporting many special status plant species that are rare from a global perspective, including Decumbent Goldenbush and Delicate Clarkia.

The groups also raised concern that activities on the site could increase risk of wildfire, though the county says the park could be used as a staging area should a wildfire occur.

County spokesperson Donna Durckel said the County does not comment on pending litigation. She referred those seeking more information on the park project to visit https://www.sdparks.org/content/sdparks/en/park-pages/AlpineCountyPark.html.

Travis Lyon, a member of the Alpine Planning Group, Alpine’s school board, and Backcountry Land Trust’s board of directors, told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2021 that Alpine residents have had to host sports events in parking lots and said he supported the idea of having a local park for people to enjoy Fourth of July festivities an more. “I think they designed a park for Alpine,” he said,  adding that the park “includes a lot of what people in Alpine want and meets the needs of the community.”

But Duncan McFetridge, director of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, says Cleveland National Forest is a special place. “The sports complex project constitutes an abject failure in planning theory....and represents a serious threat of sprawl encroachment not only into the rural areas of Alpine but also into forest lands.  Once we lose this rare and fragile habitat, it’s gone forever.  We need to protect this sensitive landscape for future generations.”