Airport Expansion Plans Soon Ready For Public Comment

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 6, 2007 at 2:29 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The San Diego Airport Authority will start a public outreach campaign this month to inform the public on future plans for expanding the airport at Lindbergh Field. KPBS reporter Alison St John has mor

The San Diego Airport Authority will start a public outreach campaign this month to inform the public on future plans for expanding the airport at Lindbergh Field. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The Airport Authority is making plans, after an initiative campaign failed last year to persuade voters the airport should move from Lindbergh to Miramar. The chairman of the board, Alan Bersin, says the first phase of the Master Plan to expand Lindbergh Field will soon be ready for public comment.

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Bersin : We'd like in our outreach and our communication efforts for this to be circulated with a note that says ‘this is our best thinking at this point, we'd be interested in your comment.’

An environmental impact report is close to finalized on plans to build 10 new gates at Terminal 2. However, there is still debate over a multi-million dollar parking structure on Harbor Drive to handle traffic growth over the next 15 years. Critics say it is more important to start developing new terminals and a transit center on the north side of the airport, next to Interstate 5.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.