Fate of Strawberry Fields to be decided tonight

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 31, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Carlsbad city council votes tonight on a ballot measure to define the future of the strawberry fields that still line Interstate Five near Cannon Road. The initiative will compete on the November ball

Carlsbad city council votes tonight on a ballot measure to define the future of the strawberry fields that still line Interstate Five near Cannon Road. The initiative will compete on the November ballot with a citizens' measure to preserve the fields as agricultural land for ever. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Anyone who drives up Iinterstate 5 knows the rural scene of laborers picking strawberries in fields that stretch to the Agua Hedionda lagoon. But the days of making strawberries pay on the valuable coastal land may be numbered.

Carlsbad city attorney Ron Ball says the city's proposed ballot measure is more realistic than a competing citizens' initiative.

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Ball: "Agriculture is allowed to continue so long as its economically feasible, but it also allows the property owner to get out of agriculture business if and when it decides to... the citizens initiative doesn't allow that."

The initiative by Concerned Citizens of Carlsbad would "zone" more than 300 acres as coastal agriculture, preserving the fields from most commercial uses. Ball says that measure would prevent landowner SDG & E from building a hotel and could expose the city to $30 million in liability. 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.