Economy

New Transportation Planner Takes Over At SANDAG

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 30, 2009 at 11:46 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

A new Director of Land Use and Transportation Planning officially takes over today at the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG. Charles “Muggs” Stoll says next year will be an important one for San Diego planners.

A new Director of Land Use and Transportation Planning is now in charge at the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG. Charles “Muggs” Stoll says next year will be an important one for San Diego planners.

Stoll says San Diego usually looks ahead 20 years when planning future road and rail projects, but the next transportation plan update, due in 2011, will look 40 years into the future.

“There’s a lot of work to do be done to be able to pull the plan together,” Stoll says. “San Diego will be the first major metropolitan region in Californian that will do a comprehensive regional transportation plan under the new state legislation which requires the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions.”

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Stoll says Transnet sales tax money is down from a high of $240 million to about $200 million, but construction bids have gone down too.

Major new projects for next year include widening Interstate 76 in San Diego’s North County and upgrading the Orange and Blue trolley lines. Work will also continue on Highways 52, 905 and 15, where express lanes are being expanded. A new interchange on Highway 805 at Carroll Canyon is also in the works.

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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.