SUNCREST TRUCK TRAIL NOT A VIABLE OPTION FOR FIRE EVACUATION ROUTE IN CREST, ACCORDING TO FIRE OFFICIALS

Fire officials announce other upgrades in fire protection for Crest

By Paul Levikow

July 14, 2025 (Crest) – For years, Crest residents have asked the County to create an additional evacuation route on Suncrest Truck Trail to protect residents in the rural community that was devasted in the 2003 Cedar Fire.  In response to a reader’s request, ECM looked into the matter. 

While officials from the County and Cal Fire say Suncrest Truck Trail is not a viable option for several reasons, many other steps are being taken to improve fire safety for Crest.

The Crest Dehesa Granite Hills Harbison Canyon Community Planning Group issued resolutions in September 2024 advising the County of San Diego about its concern to reduce wildfire risk and improve evacuation options in Crest and surrounding areas.

The resolution “advises the County of San Diego to recognize the imminent threat posed by inadequate evacuation routes in the subregion and take decisive action to address this critical vulnerability. In the event of a catastrophic wildfire, the current evacuation routes, particularly La Cresta Road, may prove insufficient, endangering lives and potentially exacerbating the impact of future wildfire.”

The resolution also “advises the County of San Diego to expedite and prioritize all necessary measures for the enhancement of Suncrest Truck Trail as a reliable alternate evacuation route for the Crest region. The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated, and every effort must be made to ensure Suncrest Truck Trail is capable of accommodating evacuations under any circumstance, including adverse weather conditions and wildfire threats from the east.”

Officials at Cal Fire say the Suncrest Truck Trail is not a viable option and they have shared several reasons why with Crest’s Planning Group, the Crest Fire Safe Council, the Crest Community Association and residents at townhall meetings.

Despite that, the resolution goes on to advise “the County of San Diego to leverage all available resources and authority to secure the support of property owners within the subregion to cooperate in granting the required voluntary easements for Suncrest Truck Trail improvements, and in the event this is not achieved, to take actions necessary to secure the improvements of this road to meet wildfire evacuation needs.”

Diana Griffin  Crest Fire Safe Council Treasurer and Subregional Planning Group Secretary, spoke with  East County Magazine as an individual, not as a spokesperson for the organizations. Griffin said that Cal Fire Deputy Chief of Community Risk Reduction, Ryan Silva, appeared before the group at a meeting earlier this year.

Chief Silva explained that because of the slope on the truck trail, improvements would require digging into the hill to make it wide enough, according to Griffin’s account of the meeting. “It would be cost prohibitive to actually make it paved or drivable so cars could go both ways,” Griffin said, quoting Silva.

Another obstacle preventing the creation of a fire evacuation route is that the area is all private land and not part of a County right-of-way. That, and it is home to the Crestridge Ecological Reserve, which is maintained by the nonprofit Endangered Habitats Conservancy (EHC). While it is private property, it is open for public use with restrictions, according to EHC officials. Motorized vehicles are not allowed and trail-making is prohibited due to conserving the habitat.

The reserves in Crest are part of the Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) for San Diego County. The program aims to protect a network of habitats and species, including rare plants and animals, across a large area of San Diego County. The Crestridge Ecological Reserve, specifically, is a critical link between other conserved lands and supports high-value species and habitats.

While the discussion continues over using Suncrest Truck Trail as a third option for evacuation from Crest, the community has taken several steps toward mitigating fire danger since the fire of 2003 destroyed hundreds of homes in the area. Most recently, Crest has been designated a Firewise USA Site by the National Fire Protection Association.

Grants have been awarded for chipping, clean-up, street signs, and reflective house number signs free to residents by the Sunrise Power Link fire mitigation community grant, County Supervisor Joel Anderson’s office and a SAFE grant through the San Diego Regional Fire Foundation, according to Griffin. The San Diego River Conservancy has a grant that could go toward the truck trail, she said. And Griffin’s plan is to do a feasibility study to see if there are other ways out of Crest besides the truck trail. “Maybe we could do a straight quick road to Dehesa by the Singing Hills Golf Course,” she said.

Cal Fire San Diego Unit Chief Tony Mecham believes they have ruled out a third evacuation route for Crest. He has been dealing with the issue for the 11 years he has been on the job as chief and the proposal has gotten nowhere. Mecham, who is also chief of San Diego County Fire, said the truck trail is a contingency route for firefighting equipment to get into Crest while residents us La Cresta Road and Mountain View Road to get out.

“I know the community would like to see it (Suncrest Truck Trail) open up,” Mecham said. “It’s all dedicated open land and that’s probably never going to change.”

Still, Mecham says, Cal Fire has worked with landowners to make improvements and his crews are allowed into the area to rehabilitate the bumpy road that is hospitable to only high-profile vehicles, not passenger cars.

“Eminent domain would not work with the habitat,” Mecham said. “It would take tens, if not, hundreds of millions of dollars to make it work. Without a viable project, there is no basis for eminent domain.”

Griffin wants to explore options.

“If the County is not going to do eminent domain, I don’t understand what else is involved for us to be able to get down that road,” she said. “The unincorporated areas have no teeth essentially because we’re such a small population that legislators don’t really listen to what our needs are. That has been a huge issue for a lot of different things.”

Mecham wants to make sure La Cresta and Mountain View Roads are maintained as fire breaks with 20 feet of clearance along the streets. “Twenty feet would be fantastic,” Mecham said. County roads maintains 10 feet and the fire department can do the 10 additional feet.”

Mecham says public education, home hardening, mitigation and work with county and private property owners to do clearance are important.

“That’s a much more achievable goal,” he said. “Let’s focus on what we can control. There is room to do additional work in the community of Crest.”