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APG seats new member, continues park debate
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — The newest member of the
Alpine Planning Group officially joined the 15-person advisory
council at last Thursday’s meeting. Immediate past chairman Mark
Price, sitting at the helm of the group for the evening due to
the absence of chairman Jim Mowry and vice-chairman George
Woods, led new member Christopher Ramey in his oath of office.
Ramey was nominated to the seat at last month’s meeting, and
his nomination was certified by the San Diego County Board of
Supervisors at its recent meeting.
Ramey, his wife, and their 5-year-old son, have been
living in Alpine for about eight months. Ramey said he has lived
in San Diego County for about five years, having been born and
raised in Tennessee. Ramey is a lawyer who is just about to open
a new practice in San Diego.
During his introduction at the May meeting, Ramey said
that the traditional values of Alpine are what drew him to the
community and to the board — in his mind these values are
family, children, and community.
“Traditional without being overly conservative,” he
said. “I want to work with you to find a way to deal with the
imminent growth I see for Alpine, and still keep to those values
of Alpine that make it such a great place to live.”
At Thursday’s meeting Ramey immediately got involved in
the workings of the group, offering to chair the APG’s Public
Facilities and Services, and Major Public Policy subcommittee,
which has been unmanned for several months.
Parkland study
Board member and Parks, Recreation and Conservation
subcommittee chairman Brad Bailey gave members an update on the
county’s search for parkland in Alpine.
“Everything is status quo for parks at the moment,”
Bailey said. “I haven’t heard anything from the county yet in
regards to the feasibility study they are doing on Tom Dyke’s
properties.”
In January, county supervisors voted to instruct county
staffers to look into access and lighting issues for a 40-acre
parcel, and to explore whether money is available to pay for a
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 use as a new Alpine
sheriff’s station in Alpine.
Dyke attended last month’s meeting to talk about his
offers, set the record straight, and to accuse certain members
of the board of dirty dealings.
“There’s been a lot of controversy over Wright’s Field,
and me, and with my property, and my proposal to donate
property,” Dyke said. “Members of this group are negotiating,
behind the public’s back, with Singer, to try to sabotage my
deal with the county. They’re bad-mouthing my property and what
I’ve done in this community, in order to push the Wright’s Field
deal — I’m sick of this.”
In front of court reporters, collecting film, audio and
textual recording of the meeting, Dyke presented the board, and
the sheriff’s department with documents regarding the 10-acre
site and an official account of his offer to the community.
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 and high school.
Wright’s Field has been a point of controversy over the
past year, as Richard Singer of the Apollo Growth Group, Ltd.,
owner of the land for more than 40 years, has offered to donate
a portion of the 143-acre property to the community for active
parkland, or even a new high school, while developing the
remaining portion, of about 60 acres.
The problem with the deal is that this very same land
is currently in option to the Back Country Land Trust, which
seeks to preserve the field.
Reports from the county have also repeatedly stated
that the land is unsuitable for either development or an active
park.
“I talked to Mr. Singer about Wright’s Field, as well
as the Back Country Land Trust,” Bailey said. “Right now there
are three appraisers that are getting together and looking at
the property.”
After that appraisal is completed, Bailey said that
BCLT would then have 31 days to re-exercise its option on the
property.
Cell planners get busy signal
from county
New cell site proposals in Alpine, and throughout the
Back Country, have been plentiful in recent months. After a cell
tower moratorium was lifted earlier this year, a spate of tower
building requests have been submitted or reintroduced to the
county.
This backlog is causing a slow down in all of the
permitting processes, according to APG Cell Tower ADHOC
committee chairman Joe Forlenza. According to him, several cell
tower proposals are currently under review at the county level.
“The backlog at the county is really slowing everything
up,” Forlenza said at last Thursday’s meeting.
The plethora of proposed cell towers that dot the map
has raised concerns from many residents in Alpine and around the
Back Country.
Board members discussed the cell site situation during
a recent meeting, ultimately finding that their hands were
largely tied on the issue.
“The feds have been getting their hands in this,” said
Chairman Jim Mowry.
Doug Benson added that the federal government, for
communications purposes, has mandated cell sites and that they
have the ultimate say about where they will be placed.
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Christy Scott
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