Mountain House officially broke ground on South Community Park Wednesday, a 23.8-acre site along South Central Parkway that city officials say will become the young city's largest community park once finished. The $50 million project sits directly across the street from the San Joaquin Delta College Mountain House campus and is expected to be complete by spring 2028.
The groundbreaking ceremony, held on October 14 at the park site, included council members and other officials, the Tracy Press reported. As first reported by the Tracy Press, the park will include soccer fields, cricket pitches, basketball courts, beach volleyball, picnic areas, playgrounds and a dog park once construction wraps.
A Mayor's Personal Stake in the Project
Mountain House Mayor Andy Su, who has lived in the city for more than two decades and spent years coaching youth sports there, said the new park will give families more chances to play and spend time together, per the Tracy Press account. Councilmember Bernice King Tingle also took part in the ceremony, the paper reported.
The park's design was not pulled out of thin air. Before finalizing the layout, the City of Mountain House surveyed 864 residents, who ranked walking and jogging trails, picnic gathering areas, playgrounds and multipurpose sports fields as their top priorities, according to the City of Mountain House. Those survey results were built directly into the site's master renderings.
Fulfilling a Three-Decade-Old Master Plan
South Community Park is one of three community parks called for under the city's parks plan, each linked to the others by pedestrian and bicycle paths, while every one of Mountain House's 12 neighborhoods also has its own dedicated neighborhood park, per the Tracy Press. That structure traces back to the original planning documents adopted in 1994, which envisioned a 4,784-acre community with 12 planned neighborhoods; each neighborhood center was planned to include a neighborhood park and a K–8 school, according to the City of Mountain House.
The master plan calls for more than 10 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, more than double the five-acre standard set by San Joaquin County requirements and national norms, the Tracy Press reported. Mountain House's pedestrian pathway network was designed to give residents automobile-free access to neighborhoods, parks and schools, the paper noted.
Gerry Kamilos, one of the original developers of Mountain House through Kamilos Companies, said the new park represents the vision laid out in the city's original plan. Kamilos worked with sheep and dairy ranchers to assemble the land more than a quarter century ago, according to the Tracy Press, and said he envisioned a community where children could bike or walk from preschool all the way through community college.
A Push to Match Growth With Permanent Campus Facilities
That vision of continuous walkable infrastructure is why Mike Sandhu, with Mountain House developers, used the groundbreaking to press both the city and San Joaquin Delta College to follow through on promised bond money to expand the college's Mountain House campus, the Tracy Press reported. San Joaquin County voters approved Measure K in November 2024, a $598 million bond measure that includes funding for Delta College to replace temporary portable classrooms with permanent technology facilities at its Mountain House campus, according to Stocktonia. College leadership has listed the Mountain House campus among its top funding priorities, per the same outlet.
The park's groundbreaking lands amid a broader building boom across the city. Mountain House formally incorporated as California's 483rd city in July 2024 and has since grown to a population of 30,687 as of January 1, 2026, a 5.6% annual growth rate that made it the state's fourth fastest-growing city, according to the City of Mountain House. Hoodline previously reported on how that rapid population surge is reshaping city plans, including the city's first official General Plan update.
Other Recreation Projects Taking Shape
South Community Park is not the city's only recent recreation investment. In July, Mountain House opened its first dedicated 1.25-acre dog park within Central Community Park as part of a Phase 2 expansion that also includes championship tennis courts and an outdoor amphitheater along Main Street, according to Tracy News Today. That dog park has separate areas for large and small dogs, the outlet reported.
Voters approved Lammersville school-district unification in 2010, according to Wikipedia. The district's civic history mirrors the pace of residential and civic expansion now visible at the South Community Park site, where construction crews are expected to keep working through spring 2028.
