Environment

Oceanside Open Space Development Initiative Qualifies For Ballot

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published April 26, 2018 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 6 years ago.

The Morro Hills in Oceanside are shown in this photo, July 26, 2017.

Oceanside is the latest city in San Diego County to mount an initiative to restrict housing development on land currently zoned as open space. the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, or SOAR, initiative has collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The measure would prevent the city council from changing the zoning on any open space in Oceanside, including parks, golf courses and farmland, without a vote of the people.

Oceanside has more than 3,000 acres of rolling farm land known as Morro Hills, reached by country roads with names like Sleeping Indian and Precious Hills.

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The fields and orchards are increasingly encroached on by new housing developments. The city has tried to boost agritourism to help keep farming viable in Morro Hills. But the region needs housing, and some farmers, challenged by higher water and labor costs, have sold their land to developers.

Many of the smaller farmers support the SOAR initiative, but larger farmers and the San Diego Farm Bureau oppose it, saying unless farms remain economically viable, the open space could turn from green fields into brown wasteland.

The city council will decide May 9 whether to the measure, call a special election or put it on the November ballot.

Oceanside Open Space Development Initiative Qualifies For Ballot

Oceanside is the latest city in San Diego County to mount an initiative to restrict housing development on land currently zoned as open space. The “SOAR” initiative has collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

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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.