Youth Center Dream Worries Neighbors

Tom Dyke spent much of his youth in and out of trouble, dropping out of school in the seventh grade and becoming a ward of the state in the California Youth Authority. He was always told he would be a loser, a failure.

The doubters were wrong.

Dyke is now a wealthy businessman who has donated 627 acres of eastern San Diego County land and several homes on the property to create a center for troubled youth. But the proposal has worried Campo residents concerned about the facility’s impact on the area.

The idea is to establish a Boys and Girls Village--modeled after the Omaha, Neb.-based Boys Town, made famous by an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name--as an alternative to the foster care system.

“This will be a place for kids of all races and colors who have been handicapped or restricted,” said Dyke, now 60. “The kids of this country are our greatest natural resource. If we don’t do it right, we’ll lose it.”

Dyke has given the land to St. Vincent de Paul, a nonprofit Catholic Church group that operates the county’s largest residential shelter in downtown San Diego’s East Village.

The program would be situated on picturesque land about 50 miles east of San Diego just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dyke, a businessman for more than 45 years, lives in Alpine and owns drilling, blasting and mining companies in San Diego and Sacramento counties. He bought the land more than 20 years ago and has spurned several dozen offers to sell it.

Dyke, a nondenominational Christian, said he felt compelled by God to donate the parcel to St. Vincent.

St. Vincent’s president, Father Joe Carroll, said the county must grant a zoning change to allow the construction of the Boys and Girls Village.

Donors could help raise as much as $30 million needed to construct the village, Carroll said. Construction could begin immediately after the plan gets county approval if St. Vincent receives a sizable initial donation.

“Once people look at it and look at our plan, I can’t believe there will be much opposition,” he said.

Roger Challberg, president of the Mountain Empire Historical Society, said residents of this rural area want to “maintain the lifestyle we have out here--large lots with lots of privacy.” Of particular concern is the proposed facility’s impact on area water and sewer capacity.

He said he believes that residents will take a “fair and objective” stance if the proposal goes before a local planning group.

The area is already the site of the Freedom Ranch private drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, as well as Rancho del Campo, a county Probation Department boot camp for young drug offenders.

The donated property could be worth more than $4 million, Carroll said.

Dyke spent $1.4 million to construct the Tudor-style main house and other structures including a large stable with living quarters, a three-story brick guesthouse and a caretaker’s house.

Carroll said that more than 500 children in San Diego County and even more in Imperial County, need a stable place to live.

If the plan is not approved, the property could be sold and the money funneled to existing St. Vincent youth programs, Carroll said.