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San Diego County Struggles With Shrinking Backcountry

By Alison St John / Reporter,  Gloria Penner / Senior Political Correspondent
Published November 20, 2009 at 1:28 PM PST
This story was published more than 15 years ago.
San Diego County Struggles With Shrinking Backcountry

GLORIA PENNER (Host): Open space in the backcountry could shrink. This week the San Diego County Planning Commission held hearings on an updated blueprint for future growth in San Diego's rural areas. The plan has been in the works for 11 years, and the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on it next year, but the process will inevitably be met with controversy as KPBS Senior Metro Reporter Alison St John will explain. Welcome Alison. So why don't we start off by explaining what does this county general plan do?

ALISON ST JOHN (KPBS News): Well it's part of the attempt to find out where another million people who are expected to come to this county by 2030 are going to live. And at a very personal level, it's how many houses could I build on my on my property. It's density is what it comes down to.

PENNER: Okay, what areas of the county are we talking about?

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ST JOHN: If you look at a map of the county all the 18 cities are along the coast and then the backcountry is 2 million acres of which about a third of that is under the jurisdiction of the county. That includes places like Valley Center, Pine Valley, Alpine, Jamul, Ramona- all those small communities that we see when we drive out to the backcountry, all the way out to Borrego Springs.

PENNER: And these are the ones that we think of as kind of rural countries, rural areas having a country atmosphere, but if there's a possibility that they're going to change, they'll be totally different, won't they?

ST JOHN: Well, that's part of the issue. You've got two issues here really. At the moment, the issue of fire protection has become more important. We've talked about trying to prevent urban sprawl, but now the issue of how are we going to protect the communities that are way out there and don't have a fire truck within 20 minutes drive of them. Also, water, ground water, a lot of the communities out there depend on ground water and I heard someone at yesterday's hearing saying, "They use to get it when they drove 300 feet, now they have to go sometimes 2,000 feet." So, they're trying to bring the development back closer in to the communities that are around San Diego. But, of course, those communities don't really want to see a lot of density either. They went to live there because they like the rural feel.

PENNER: Why are they addressing this now? This seems like this is a long road down the road.

ST JOHN: Until 2030? I tell you Gloria, it's already happening. I mean there are developers with plans in the works for communities up the I-15 for another 30,000 people. Merriam Mountain is just about to be, to go before the supervisors for approval. And there are densities in some of these developers' proposals which are not even included in the original plan. So, the chances are that unless this general plan gets passed, densities are going to pop up in places where planners would really rather not see them.

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PENNER: So, it really has teeth in it? Once that general plan is passed, they can actually stop development if it's not part of the general plan.

ST JOHN: Well, it lays out the framework. It has to do with zoning. A lot of zoning would actually change, so it would affect developers, it would affect individual property-owners who thought they could subdivide their land in perhaps maybe seventy homes are now being told, "You can only have two." So, it will make a big difference both at the individual and at the developer level.

PENNER: Now, when you're talking about land use, there's controversy, always. So, is there a clear delineation between who's for the change and who's against it?

ST JOHN: Well, many of the communities have planning groups and they've been working really hard on their own particular plans, and those have been incorporated into this general plan. Right now, the county's planning commission, which is made-up of seven appointed people, is going to do some fine-tuning. And, of course, at this point, there's a lot of people attempting to get exceptions from these plans. There are developers who would like to get exceptions, there are individual property owners who are hoping to get exceptions from this plan before it gets through. So, I think they'll be a lot of joshing for attention in these last few months and the planning commission will have a hard job of coming up with a recommendation for the supervisors.

PENNER: Okay. And meanwhile, the developers are getting active.

ST JOHN: We should keep our eyes on that.

PENNER: Okay, thank-you very much, Alison St John.

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.
Gloria Penner
KPBS remembers Gloria Penner, Senior Political Correspondent and host of "KPBS Midday Edition- Roundtable" on Fridays at noon. Gloria was the host "San Diego Week" from 2008-2011 and also hosted the first hour of KPBS Radio's "These Days" from 1995 to 1999. She served as the host of KPBS TV's "Full Focus" from 2003 to 2007. Gloria first joined KPBS Television in 1969 as director of community relations. Subsequently, she oversaw production of television programs for nine years. From 1993 to 1995, she was the host and writer for "KPBS Weekend Edition," a locally produced television program featuring highlights from the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. National credits include reporting and producing assignments for "Nightly Business Report" and the "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour." She played an active part in KPBS’ election coverage for 30 years. She has moderated scores of town hall meetings on candidates races and propositions for KPBS, "Envision San Diego," and the League of Women Voters. She conducted scores of interviews with congressional, state and local candidates; and reported for television documentaries on issues and candidates. Her awards include 7 Emmys, 5 Golden Mikes, 2 Gracies from the American Federation of Women in Radio and Television, The San Diego Press Club’s Harold Keen Award for excellence in journalism, the John Swett Award from the California Teachers Association, and many honors from the Society for Professional Journalists and the San Diego Bar Association. An annual Gloria Penner Award for Civic Service was established in 2003 by the League of Women Voters of San Diego County, and Gloria was the first recipient. Gloria earned her bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College. She did graduate work in English at New York University and earned her Master’s Degree in English from Syracuse University. She started her radio career in San Francisco in the 1950s as an associate producer on a program called Housewives Protective League. Her first job in television came after a move to Washington, D.C. where she was associate producer of the Washington segment of the "Today Show." After a stint in Hawaii and a return to Washington, D.C., she relocated to San Diego and took a few years off for family life. Gloria is survived by her husband Bill Snyder of La Jolla; two sons, Brad Penner of San Diego and Steve Penner of Tucson, Arizona.
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