Supervisors vote to re-do flawed environmental review for Alpine park

Hannah Elsmore, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 4, 2026

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SAN DIEGO — County supervisors recently voted to hit restart on a proposal to put a 25-acre community park in Alpine, unanimously approving a new environmental impact report after a conservationist lawsuit derailed the project last year.

The county-led effort to secure a community park for the backcountry community has stretched over 30 years.

Its latest setback came from a lawsuit filed by the Cleveland National Forest Foundation and the California Native Plant Society in 2024 that argued the park’s environmental impact was not measured properly during county studies.

A Superior Court ruling in January upheld the conservation groups’ argument and ordered the county to set aside previous certification of the project.

Despite the setback, county leaders are moving forward with the park project — but the design isn’t changing.

“Because the legal challenge was specific to public disclosure under CEQA related to the issue areas, we do not anticipate changing the overall project design as part of this update,” a representative for the county’s parks and recreation group said.

The updated environmental analysis will be circulated during a new public review period. Responses will be reviewed and officials will respond to them to “demonstrate to the public how all comments were incorporated and addressed,” a representative for the county’s parks and recreation group said.

Opponents of the proposal want the county to consider different locations for the park site, arguing the project may harm a variety of native species to the area, including the western spadefoot toad and pallid bats.

Courtney Norton is a 30-year resident of Alpine and a member of Preserve Alpine’s Heritage, a local nonprofit that has long opposed the proposed park.

“Based on the court’s ruling, truly, how will the environmental impacts be mitigated?” Norton asked county leaders during the meeting in April. “There are species on the county-owned property that just can’t be picked up and or disturbed, the adjacent land that they survive on without the anticipation of their extinction on the land.”

Rather, the advocacy group has proposed the county leave the space the way it is.

Located on a swath of grassland at 2480 S. Grade Road just south of Interstate 8, the proposed park would land adjacent to Wright’s Field, a 240-acre nature preserve that is home to a popular hiking trail.

After purchasing 98 acres adjacent to the nature preserve in 2019, the county opted to develop 26 of those acres for the community park while leaving the remaining 72 acres as open space and to serve as a natural barrier between the development and the open space preserve.

The county-backed plans call for the park to feature a variety of amenities and recreation space, including a bike park, equestrian staging area, pickleball and basketball courts and a community garden.

“There are many locations throughout the village with already disturbed land or options for joint-use-agreements to update what Alpine already has to offer for parks,” Norton said. “It is a park already and our community enjoys it for what it is.”

On the other hand, park proponents say the development will provide a long-needed sports recreation space for residents while increasing park access. Alpine falls significantly behind the county’s suggested acreage for parkland in unincorporated areas.

“It is an incredible gift to our community that we have waited so long for,” Supervisor Joel Anderson, a longtime resident of Alpine, said. “The people opposing it live in a gated community across the street of this park; they’re not the people that are gonna be using it. It’s all the other families that will be using it.”

There are little to no parks in the unincorporated community, Anderson contended, noting the proposal “goes way out of its way to make sure there’s something for everybody.”

After a new environmental impact report is completed, residents will have 30 days to provide input ahead of the project returning to the Board of Supervisors for approval. County officials expect to bring the project back to county leaders by the end of the current fiscal year.

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