LAND MARKED FOR HOUSING WILL BE PRESERVED NOW

Otay Ranch acreage was planned for homes, stores, more

Nearly 1,300 acres of wildland in southwest San Diego County once envisioned for housing development will remain undisturbed under a successful land swap.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has acquired and will manage the swath of land where a developer had planned to build more than 1,000 homes east of Chula Vista and south of Jamul along Proctor Valley Road.

On Thursday, the $60 million sale became final.

Multiple conservation agencies are funding the acquisition: $30 million from the state Wildlife Conservation Board, $25 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and $5 million between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy.

The $25 million from

Homeland Security came from a July 2023 settlement between the Sierra Club and President Joe Biden’s administration involving lawsuits over the construction of a U.s.-mexico border wall under former President Donald Trump. Construction was harming local wildlife, the Sierra Club had argued. As part of the deal, the federal government agreed to stop further construction and provided the funding to the state so that it could purchase the land.

The Proctor Valley land is now part of the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve, a site with “open grasslands that provide foraging habitat for abundant and diverse raptor species,” according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. It also now has the potential for future public use, such as wildlife viewing, day hiking, bird watching and photography, the department said.

GDCI Proctor Valley, a limited partnership including real estate agency Genstar