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Planning group hears possible problems
with two school sites
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — Problems with two of the four
sites for a new Alpine High School arose at the last Alpine
Planning Group meeting held Sept. 28. Public commentary, as well
as a yet-to-be planned project, may have taken the wind out of
two of the narrowed down site choices.
“I said I would wait until the sites were narrowed down
and here I am,” said Tom Dyke, owner of the site dubbed study
area C, on Tavern Road north of the Interstate 8 overpass.
“There’s a lot of misinformation going around Alpine, but I want
to get this on the record. I do not, under any circumstances,
want my property taken by the school.”
Area C was Alpine’s second best choice, according to an
online survey of residents conducted by the Grossmont Union High
School District.
“I don’t care if they give me 100-million dollars… the
money isn’t an issue… I don’t want them taking my land,” Dyke
said. “I don’t want to give anything to the Grossmont district.”
Whether this declaration will take the site off the
list is yet to be determined. While the GUHSD board has said
that it does not want to use eminent domain in finding the site
for this school, in reality, almost every new school’s land is
acquired this way.
The other site that was deflated during the planning
group meeting is study area G, located on Chocolate Summit Road,
behind the new Los Coches Creek Middle School. This site was
rated third amongst Alpine survey-takers.
“What we’re talking about is a 20-acre development of
about eight lots,” said Bill Moser, the consultant working on
very preliminary plans for a project in the school site area.
“This is only being presented as a courtesy, to let us
know, before even submitting a permit for this project, they
want to talk to us,” said APG Chairman Jim Mowry.
“It’s not a real project yet,” said Moser, who, along
with project owner Mark Russell, have yet to submit plans to the
county. “There are so many details to work out that we wanted to
come here and get this group’s input.”
Planning group member Mark Price mentioned the naming
of that area as a possible site for a new school at the meeting.
Neither Moser nor Russell was aware of the spot as a potential
high school site.
It is unknown what either of these situations will do
to a search for a new high school for Alpine. The GUHSD board
and consultants are still looking at all four sites and are
moving forward with studies.
The online survey conducted by GUHSD saw Alpine
participate to the tune of 700 responses and 253 comments.
Respondents were presented with the 10 original sites and asked
to rate each based on a set of criteria. The criteria for the
choices was: Safety, location, environment, topography, size and
shape, accessibility, public services, utilities, cost,
availability and public acceptance.
The top four choices from Alpine residents include: 287
responses in favor of study area J on Alpine Boulevard; the Lazy
A Ranch, 257 responses were in favor of study area C, Tavern
Road Property, 244 responses were in favor of study area G,
Chocolate Summit Road, behind the current Los Coches Creek
Middle School, and the last choice considered, with 175
responses in favor, was the Wright’s Field location.
The general consensus of the comments was that Alpine
residents were concerned with the traffic that will be created
and its management. They were generally opposed to displacing
homes and business, they were opposed to using eminent domain
powers and they were also opposed to using Wright’s Field.
At the September GUHSD board meeting project
consultants were directed to move forward in their research, in
an attempt to whittle the four sites down to two. Time will tell
whether these recent revelations may have already done the job
for them.
Albertson’s…To be or not to
be?
Planning member Price offered a bit of an update about
the long-awaited, and debated, Albertson’s project at the corner
of Alpine Boulevard and South Grade.
“There’s been a lot of confusion in the community as to
what’s happening with the Albertson’s, it’s been approved for
quite some time… they’ve really done quite little,” Price said
to meeting attendees.
Earlier this year, Supervalu Inc., CVS Corp. and a
group of investment firms agreed to buy the Albertson’s chain
for about $9.8 billion and have plans to split the company into
three parts. Supervalu is owner of the Save-A-Lot and Shop ‘n
Save discount chains.
At that point, residents in the area began questioning
what would happen with the approved, but not yet started grocery
store project.
According to Larry Tucker, who has served as a partner
in the development venture since it’s inception in 1998, no one
knows yet which store will be coming to Alpine in Albertson’s
place. However, he says that this change in ownership should not
have any effect on the Alpine project, which has already been
approved by the county.
Most recently the owners, CVS, have halted all of their
proposed projects in order to do more studies on each. This will
determine as to whether a particular project is going to be
built or sold off to another company.
According to Tucker, there are three options for the
project off of South Grade. First, and what he thinks is likely
to occur, is that when studies are finished at the end of this
month, the project will move forward as an Albertson’s, as has
been the plan from the start. The other possibility is that CVS
will sell the to another company.
According to Tucker, the Ralph’s chain has shown great
interest in the location of the Alpine project. The third
option, that the project will disappear and will not be
developed, is, according to Tucker, very unlikely.
More information will be available when the study
report is released later this month.
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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