Oceanside considers hotel proposal for waterfront property

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 15, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Oceanside City Council will consider tonight whether to pay a much larger subsidy than expected for its new oceanfront hotel. The proposed hotel is a lynchpin for redevelopment in Oceanside, and has b

Oceanside City Council will consider tonight whether to pay a much larger subsidy than expected for its new oceanfront hotel. The proposed hotel is a lynchpin for redevelopment in Oceanside, and has been the subject of controversy for 25 years. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Oceanside's redevelopment director Jane McVey says the project is too important to the city to balk at a cost increase, even though the city's subsidy will balloon by many millions of dollars.

McVey: "The council agreed to 9.9 and here we are and the number is now 27 but construction costs have gone up and the project is bigger, so the time is right, Oceanside has matured, the market is there."

Become a KPBS sponsor

Mcvey says the new Sprinter line and the Coaster will make Oceanside a hub, and the city can no longer afford to leave its prime pier-front property vacant.
Previous plans for a hotel fell through when developer Doug Manchester proposed a 14 story high building that the Coastal Commission rejected. The proposal this time is eight stories, and the increased subsidy from the city is partly designed to prevent the hotel from growing any higher. Alison St John, KPBS News.

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.