Economy

Supervisors Consider Long-Term Plan For Development In San Diego's Forests

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 24, 2014 at 2:52 PM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

Map of Cleveland National Forest, with privately held land in brown.

For the past 20 years, the Cleveland National Forest has been protected by a San Diego citizens initiative that set a 40-acre minimum lot size.

Duncan McFetridge, director of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, said the initiative restricted development on more than 50,000 acres of private land within the national forest.

“An overwhelming majority voted to protect this forest, and it’s the only plan in the history of San Diego County that has ever been successful in planning for contained urbanization and permanent protection of ecological resources," McFetridge said. "There have been no developments outside the country towns.”

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He said many of the private ranches within the boundaries of the national forest are open meadow.

The supervisors will consider Wednesday various options and direct staff to develop a new zoning map that could allow minimum lot sizes up to 80 acres in some areas, and as small as 4 acres in others.

The map would guide future development in rural areas east of Alpine, Ramona and around Mount Palomar. It is intended to bring the land into line with San Diego County's overall general plan for growth.

The Board of Supervisors meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the County Administration Building, 1600 Pacific Highway, downtown San Diego.

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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.