Published weekly

February 9, 2006

Supes embrace study of Dyke parkland offer 

By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     SAN DIEGO — The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted last week to begin studies on a potential park site in Alpine. The land in question has been offered to the community by local businessman Tom Dyke.
     County supervisors agreed last Wednesday, Jan. 31, to have county staffers look into access and lighting issues for a 40-acre parcel, and to explore whether money is available to pay for a smaller 10-acre parcel.
     Dyke, who owns a drilling and blasting company in Alpine, has publicly offered to donate 40 acres behind Crown Hills to be used as an active park site. He has also offered to sell the 10-acre parcel to the county for park use.
     “I am committed to helping the community of Alpine acquire the park land, and this action is the first step in working to accomplish that goal,” said District 2 Supervisor Dianne Jacob.
     “In my opinion, Alpine is closer than ever to having a large active park,” said George Barnett, chairman of the Active Parks and Recreation committee for Jacob’s Alpine Revitalization. “It looks like we have a bona fide offer from Tom Dyke — let's really charge at this.”
     According to Barnett, no cost has yet been set for the 10-acre property, but Dyke is willing to consider “a very favorable price.” An appraisal of the land, located adjacent to the Tavern Road on-ramp, will be among the duties of county staff.

 
     The Dyke properties are among only a few sites in the Alpine area that have been focused on for possible park use. Certainly the most controversial has been the proposal to use the yet unpreserved portion of Wright’s Field as an active park site.
     Wright’s Field is in the midst of conflict at the moment, as Richard Singer of the Apollo Growth Group, Ltd., owner of the land for more than 40 years, recently offered to donate 83 acres of the remaining 143 to the community for use as an active park and to build homes on the other 60 acres. The problem is that that land is currently in option to the Back Country Land Trust, which is striving to preserve the field.
     “We had offered an opportunity to BCLT to buy a portion of our property,” Singer said. “Unfortunately there was a disagreement between us — there was a large difference of opinion as to what our value was and what they want to pay.”
     BCLT had until the end of June 2005 to exercise the option on the property, according to a deal between the owners and the county. As required by the contract, BCLT had the property appraised on May 4, then exercised the option on May 26. According to BCLT, the group offered to pay $2,265,000 for the option property.
     Singer believes that this offer is much too low for the property.
     “We hired an appraiser, who estimated that the value of the remainder of our land in this general area was a little over $6 million,” Singer said. “BCLT thought it was only worth about $2.3 million… that’s a big difference.”
     Singer said that nothing has been worked out with BCLT regarding the purchase of the land, and that the next step is an independent appraisal of the property.
     “We’ve hired an appraiser and BCLT has hired an appraiser, and they’ve gotten together and contracted a third appraiser, so they’re going to have to get together and evaluate what the actual value of the property would be,” Singer said.
     He believes that this process will be completed in 60 to 90 days.
     “At that point, whatever that final decision is… we have the right to offer it, and they have the right to buy it or not buy it, and so can Paul Gonya buy it.”
     “Nothing has been offered from BCLT at this point, other than $2.3 million,” Singer said. “They’re never going to buy the property for anything other than fair market value, so we probably won’t work anything out with BCLT — but that’s what we tried to do.”
     Gonya, a developer and businessman in Alpine and throughout the county, has offered to purchase the portion of the field to build homes, while leaving the remainder as active parkland. He argued that the Dyke property behind Crown Hills would not be suitable for an active park due to the hilly terrain.
     “Back to topography, that land is definitely not going to be as attractive to the sports federations and sports clubs as Wright’s Field.”
     According to county staff, the property at Wright’s Field has been deemed unsuitable for active park use. The Alpine Planning Group has received three letters in the past few years from county staff, reiterating that view.
     “Active parkland use, even on the edges of the field, would adversely affect the habitat and environment already subject to preservation. The county does not support active parkland use on Wright's Field,” reads one of the letters received in 2003.
     “You have to define who the county is,” Gonya said. “An entity within the county has decided that they won’t support a park on Wright’s Field, and that entity is the county parks service, and they have the right to decide where they want a park. That does not, however, preclude that a park can be built there. The parks that we have now in Alpine aren’t county parks.”
     While the focus and impetus of the county study is the Dyke properties, supervisors also directed staff to take a look at other possible park sites in the Alpine area.
     Learn more at:
  'Vision of Alpine' starts with cleaning, moves on to pocket parks and rustic bridges
  Wright's Field plot thickens
  Alpine Planning Group Home page

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