Polytechnic School in Pasadena has officially pulled out of a controversial plan to develop a sports complex in the Altadena foothills, citing unexpected complexities and high costs associated with the project.

In a letter to the school community posted on its website on Tuesday, the private, K-12 school announced its decision to scrap the ”PolyFields” project.

A detailed study of the site’s environmental conditions revealed that the infrastructure, engineering and grading requirements would make the project unfeasible. The study, conducted in May after the school submitted the project application to the county, found development costs to be “much higher than anticipated”.

“The Board recognized it was simply not responsible or prudent to continue pursuing a plan that would require such a high level of financial investment, particularly as Poly has many other important priorities for funding,” the letter said. “As a result, Poly is officially withdrawing the land use application for the project.”

In 2022, the school purchased a 78-acre, mostly undeveloped property off Chaney Trail in Altadena, anchored by the renowned Nuccio’s Nurseries, which in October of that same year announced plans to wind down operations in the coming years after becoming famous for their Camellia and Azalea selection over the past nine decades.

Poly’s proposal aimed to build an athletic complex on 13 acres of the site, which would feature a baseball field, seven tennis courts, a multipurpose field with a track, an outdoor education facility, environmental science classrooms and parkings. The goal was to provide on-site facilities for the school’s sports teams, who practice and compete off-campus or on undersized fields.

Despite promises from school officials to preserve the majority of the undeveloped field and improve nearby hiking trails, the project has faced significant pushback from the community since the beginning.One particular vocal group is AltadenaWILD, which was formed by outraged residents determined to stop Poly’s plan.

“We are gratified that Polytechnic school leadership has come to this decision,” Michael Bicay, the group’s founding president, said Tuesday.

“It’s one that I think was obvious to many others throughout both the Altadena and Pasadena communities a long time ago. And I should note that a number of the members of the opposition were also Poly alumni,” he said. “There was widespread opposition to this idea, it was just so inappropriate for this kind of development to take place in this kind of environment.”

The group collected nearly 7,000 signatures from community members on a petition opposing the project, according to Bicay. It argued the sports complex would decrease the land’s value for conservation, increase wildfire risks, and cause light and sound pollution that would affect native wildlife, among other things.

“A lot of people want to develop in the foothills,” he said. “Meanwhile, Los Angeles County is increasingly passing ordinances that would discourage development in the foothills, and so I anticipate this is just one of many battles that we will fight.”

When reached by the phone Tuesday, Jim Nuccio, president of Nuccio’s Nurseries, which has been run by the Nuccio family since the 1930s, said he was not completely surprised to hear the project cancellation due to the many concerns raised by his neighbors.

“It was maybe a bit of a surprise, but not really,” he said. “..We’re kind of prepared to be here for a while longer anyways, and we’re kind of propagating like we’re going to be here a while longer because we didn’t know what our time frame was.”

The property borders a county-maintained road, which limits the number of structures that can go the site, Nuccio said. The family said no to two developers before the Poly offer came in, he said.

“I said no to a cannabis grower, (it) just didn’t seem like a good fit either for the area,” Nuccio said. “So when the Poly offer came in that seemed like the better option of all the ones that had come in, but it was never really on the market. So we’ll have to find a way to put it on the market and see what happens.”

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Poly’s Head of School John Bracker said the school is pursuing alternate sites closer to its campus to create athletic field spaces.

“We remain fully committed to our goal of enhancing Poly’s athletic facilities and programs,” he said. “We greatly appreciate the time and insights shared over the past many months by members of the Poly community as well as many Altadena residents and community leaders. We are also deeply grateful to Joe Nuccio and his family, owners of the project site Poly explored, for their partnership throughout this process.”

A special Board committee, co-chaired by Trustees Henry Choi and Rosalina Cardenas, has been formed to explore various options, including a single site or multiple smaller properties. The school is also “evaluating investments in our existing athletic facilities on campus,” Poly said in the letter posted on its website.