Airport Authority's Focus Returns to Expanding Lindbergh Field

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 5, 2006 at 8:05 AM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego's Airport Authority voted Monday to go ahead tentatively with their master plan to expand Lindbergh Field. Now that voters have rejected negotiating a move to MAS Miramar, the authority is t

San Diego’s Airport Authority voted Monday to go ahead tentatively with their master plan to expand Lindbergh Field. Now that voters have rejected negotiating a move to MAS Miramar, the authority is trying to decide how best to maximize Lindbergh ’s capacity. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The Airport Authority’s plan includes adding new gates to Terminal 2, and building a new parking structure for thousands of cars off Harbor Drive. Critics say it would be better to shift the focus to Pacific Highway, and better freeway access.

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Board member Paul Nieto proposed a compromise: more traffic studies to compare the environmental impacts of building a parking structure on the Bay, versus building a new transit terminal near Interstate-5.

Nieto: If we find out that it is so damaging that it is way more environmentally sensitive to do something different, then that’s what this agency will have to wrestle with, debate and maybe alter its direction.

This was the Airport Authority’s final meeting. More than half the members will be new appointees when the authority meets again in January. The Airport Master Plan will then become a major focus. 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.