Environment

San Diego's Back County Plan Worries Farmers

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 15, 2010 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

The San Diego Farm Bureau will hold a work shop today on the effects of the County’s General Plan Update. The existing General Plan allows development densities that are inappropriate for a rural area, and a judge ordered it to be updated.

But ranchers, like Randy Lenock of “Save Our Rural Economy,” are worried. Lenock says, if his land is rezoned for less development, it will lose value.

"County staff is going to offer what they refer to as a 'purchase of development rights' program," Lenock said, "and I know for a fact that the 'purchase of development rights' program has no money in it, nor will there ever be any money in it to adequately compensate these farmers."

Become a KPBS sponsor

To compensate ranchers and other backcountry land owners for lower density zoning would cost millions of dollars that the county does not have.

The county’s planning commission meets later this week to debate the issue.

The supervisors have asked for the General Plan Update to be completed by the Fall of this year.

Tags

Alison St John

twitter

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.