Chargers Report: Chula Vista Has Two Viable Stadium Locations

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 13, 2007 at 12:16 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The San Diego Chargers released a report to the public today that concludes the city of Chula Vista has two viable sites for a new NFL football stadium. Questions about the two sites are already surfa

The San Diego Chargers released a report to the public today that concludes the city of Chula Vista has two viable sites for a new NFL football stadium. Questions about the two sites are already surfacing in the community. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The consultants' report emphasizes modern stadiums have to be designed as an integral part of the surrounding local community, and create a sense of place.

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Peter Watry is with Crossroads 2, a community group focused on land use. He says the Otay site in East Chula Vista would be accessed by a toll road.

Watry : And so the question everybody has is how many people are going to take a toll road. I want to be there the first day they get to one twenty five they got to pay money. If they won’t do that, that means they got to take surface streets, that could be a mess.

The second possible site is on the Chula Vista Bayfront. Watry says there are still questions about whether Gaylord will redevelop that site, and if so, whether the developer would want a football stadium next to its convention center.

Town hall meetings on the stadium sites will be held in Chula Vista in coming weeks.

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.