By MIKE HARRIS
Special to the Alpine Mountaineer
What has been to date a small Christian camp in Green Valley Lake serving around 300 campers at a time, would grow over the next 10 to 25 years to accommodate up to 3,000 campers and staff, and add several new buildings to handle the expansion plans.
According to documents filed with San Bernardino County and the county’s Planning Department, the camp, operated by Hume SoCal Christian Camps, wants to expand from the current 107-acre campground to approximately 252.1 acres, and increase camp facilities from 300 campers to about 3,000 campers. The property is owned by Calvary Chapel.
Plans also call for new camp structures including residential dorms, semi-permanent tent, staff housing, renovation of an existing dining hall and three additional dining halls, and organized indoor/outdoor recreational facilities, campground infrastructure and addition of recreational activities with implementation to occur over five phases.
Hume Christian Camps is a multi-site youth camp and adult retreat organization, providing epic, high-energy, life-changing camp experiences, and celebrated 80 years of operation in 2025.
John Boal, CEO for Hume Campgrounds, told the Alpine Mountaineer that their primary audience is upper elementary, middle school and high school students.
“We know that camping does wonderful things for the youth,” he said. “Our goal is getting kids up to the mountains and introducing them to God and nature.”
Boal said of the 250 acres Hume is looking at, “we would only be developing a small portion.”
So far, protests to Hume’s expansion plan proposal have come from Running Springs Water Co., and a San Francisco law firm on behalf of SOFA, Save Our Forest Association.
The water company responded to the HUME expansion proposal by saying, “The district has identified substantial deficiencies …in wastewater services, groundwater basins, and emergency response”. The “Mitigated Negative Declaration” submitted by Hume is insufficient and a full EIR [Environmental Impact Report] is needed.”
The water company also said that “This will have significant impact on Green Valley Lake in terms of our evacuation route down Green Valley Lake Road, the capacity of our sewer treatment in Running Springs, and our well water supply, and the traffic at the Highway 18 junction, just to name a few.”
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, representing SOFA, wrote that “This firm represents Save Our Forest Association (“SOFA”) in connection with the Hume SoCal Campground Expansion Project (“Project”) and its Draft Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (“MND”). SOFA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to preserve the quality of life in the San Bernardino mountains.
“SOFA is concerned that the scale and location of the proposed Project will have substantial negative effects on biological resources, such as the southern rubber boa. SOFA is also concerned about the Project’s likelihood of increasing public safety risks related to wildfire and inadequate evacuation routes. The Project’s MND’s analyses of impacts to water supply, water quality, and wastewater services are also incomplete and unsupported. The available evidence shows that the expansion of the Camp will severely strain existing resources and have significant impacts to the region.”
There may be more protests to Hume SoCal Campground project. As of press time, the Alpine Mountaineer could only access the two used in this story.
But without a doubt, the camp expansion project is going to have a long time in getting final approval.
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