Environmental impact of Navy Broadway redevelopment has some concerned

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 27, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The ambitious Navy Broadway redevelopment plan on the waterfront in downtown San Diego may face scrutiny from the California Coastal Commission. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The Navy got approval for their plan from the Coastal Commission back in the early 1990s, when they made an agreement with the city to redevelop the area. The project wants built then but now it's on a fast track. Critics have raised questions about the environmental impacts of the massive high rises proposed for the site.

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Coastal commissioner Mark Delaplaine says it's up to the Navy to decide whether to seek his panel's approval.

Delaplaine: "The safe thing to do would be to get a permit because then you wouldn't have someone suing that they didn't go through the right process. So we haven't taken any formal position as to whether a permit is needed, it's just it's been an open question since it was raised 15 years ago."

The Navy and the developer, Doug Manchester, are rushing to sign a 99 year lease by the end of this year. 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.