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Eyes forward: The Alpine Sun takes a look at the
important issues for 2007
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — Like 2006, the New Year is
bound to bring new changes to Alpine and the Back Country. As
always, The Alpine Sun will continue this year to bring its
readers the news from their communities.
Several issues are bound to be “hot topics” in 2007.
Here are just some of the issues that are going to be important
to Alpine and Alpiners in the coming year.
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| The very beginning of
site preparation and grading is now going on at the
long-awaited Albertson’s site on the corner of South Grade
Road and Alpine Boulevard. |
Albertson’s underway
No doubt, by now most residents have noticed the
grading and site preparation that’s going on at the corner of
South Grade Road and Alpine Boulevard — the site of the long
awaited Albertson’s. Yes, construction has begun on the store.
This project has been on the books for several years,
but hit a few bumps along the way. In June 2006, Supervalu Inc.
bought the Albertson’s chain for about $9.8 billion. At that
point, residents in the area began questioning what would happen
with the approved, but not yet started grocery store project.
Most recently the new owners had halted all of their
proposed development projects in order to do more studies on
each.
“The Alpine site was studied by SuperValu and approved
by their investment council in October,” said Larry Rucker, who
has been working on the project since its inception. “That
approval authorized the construction of the shopping center
which is now underway.”
According to Tucker, the Alpine location will be an
Albertson’s-Sav-on combination grocery and drugstore measuring
52,500 square feet. He added that this is more than 5,000 square
feet smaller than originally approved by the county.
“However this still is considered a full size
supermarket-drugstore and will be larger than the closest
comparable Albertson’s along the 8 freeway in El Cajon,” Tucker
said.
According to Tucker, Albertson’s hopes to open its
store by mid-November 2007. However, this will be dependent on
good weather and the ability to have work timely completed by
AT&T to underground overhead phone lines that presently cross
the site. The worst-case scenario is that the Albertson’s-Sav-on
will open in January 2008.
Parks for Alpine
The search for Alpine parkland will continue into the
new year, and with hope, will come to fruition within the next
12 months. Most recently the search for parkland was halted put
on hold, for now, until local planners can make up their minds
about what to do next. This was the outcome of a meeting between
Alpine Planning Group members, county supervisor Dianne Jacob
and county staff members.
The original purpose behind the meeting was to learn
why the county’s report did not include all of the sites that
the group had submitted. The county report, which was presented
to the subcommittee on Oct. 12, specifies two sites in Alpine
that would be suitable for an active park: The “old chicken
ranch” located on Harbison Canyon Road, adjacent to Shadow Hills
Elementary School; or the now unused Lazy A horse ranch,”
located on Alpine Boulevard at the east end of town.
The concern of planning group members was that the
report did not include the Wright’s Field property as one of the
possible sites.
At an impasse, the county can not move forward until
planning group members decide whether they are going to move
forward with the staff recommendations, or to go back, and study
sites that have already been dropped from the list.
“The planning group needs to decide whether it is going
to go ahead with the options that the county has presented, or
whether it’s going to search for other ways to fund the studies
on the field,” said county supervisor Dianne Jacob.
“If we want to challenge it, it’s up to us,” said
Barnett at the Dec. 7 meeting. “And until the APG makes up it’s
mind, studies on parks in Alpine have stopped. The county is
ready to go, they’ve got willing sellers and they’re ready to
move forward with the sites they have… They’ve found pieces of
property that meet everyone’s criteria, they’re ready to move
ahead on those sites.”
This issue is one of the first that will face the APG
this year. The topic will be discussed and voted on at the
Parks, Recreation and Conservation Subcommittee meeting on Jan.
11 at 5:30 p.m. at the community center, and will be in front of
the APG at its Jan. 25 meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Alpine high school
2006 was a big year for the pursuit of an Alpine High
School. This year saw the most progress made towards this end,
resulting in four potential sites being identified and an order
from the Grossmont Union School District to whittle that down to
only two. This was at the September board meeting, and little
has been heard since.
At the September APG meeting members, by chance, heard
possible problems with two of those sites.
“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 GUHSD.
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, a consultant working on very
preliminary plans for a housing project in the school site area.
This project has not yet been submitted to the county, and the
owners did not know about the high school site choices.
It is unknown what either of these situations will do
to a search for a new high school for Alpine.
The four sites determined, that are being studies further, are
study area J on Alpine Boulevard; the Lazy A Ranch, study area
C, Tavern Road Property, study area G, Chocolate Summit Road,
behind the current Los Coches Creek Middle School, and the
Wright’s Field location.
Editor’s note: With the help
of a few wonderful freelance writers, The Alpine Sun brings you
the news and events from your town. But we still remain a very
small operation! I’d love to be able to be everywhere covering
everything, but that just isn’t possible. From Alpine to Jacumba,
I’m always looking for local writers and photographers to help
out with content. Not a writer? Maybe you can help me out by
attending local meetings with a tape recorder or video camera,
then simply send me a copy (or let me borrow the original — it
will be returned safely). If you think you can help out please
give me a call at 445-3288, or e-mail me.
Thank you, Christy.
E-mail
Christy Scott
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