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Bayfront High Rise Plan Gets Coastal Commission Go Ahead

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published January 8, 2009 at 2:55 PM PST
This story was published more than 15 years ago.

A plan to build two high rise luxury hotels on San Diego’s Embarcadero has passed a major hurdle this week. The California Coastal Commission has given the go ahead for the Bay front development, wi

Bayfront High Rise Plan Gets Coastal Commission Go Ahead

A plan to build two high rise luxury hotels on San Diego’s Embarcadero has passed a major hurdle this week. The California Coastal Commission has given the go ahead for the  Bay front development, with a couple of strings attached. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Lane Field lies at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive downtown, a prime site overlooking San Diego Bay. It was the home of the Padres in the 1950s. Now it’s a parking lot.

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Chris Duggan of San Diego’s Regional Economic Development Corporation told the Coastal Commission the hotels and restaurants will be a major boost to the economy.         

Duggan : The EDC believes the Lane Field project meets the growing demand to transform our bay front, otherwise known as our front porch -  and will provide  2,000 hotel jobs, 500 temporary construction jobs and, it’s estimated, $5.4 million in  transit occupancy tax, received by the city of San Diego.

To satisfy Coastal Commission concerns about public access to the Bay, the developer must provide a bay front shuttle,  plus pay half the cost of a new International Youth Hostel,  somewhere else on the tidelands.

Sue Shaffner of Hostelling International likes the unique approach of balancing luxury hotels with affordable hostels.

Shaffner : We look forward to one day soon, inviting hostellers of all ages from around the world, to a hostel at one of the most beautiful locations around the world, the San Diego Port Tidelands.

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The Port is committed to find a site for the Youth Hostel. If one isn’t found in a year, the port and the developer must come up with a $6 million fee instead.  

Alison St John, KPBS news.

Alison St John
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.
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