Politics

County Holds Second Hearing on General Plan Update

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published November 10, 2010 at 12:09 PM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

The San Diego County Supervisors held the second hearing on their plan to change land-use zoning in the unincorporated areas of the county for the next 40 years; the board chambers were full.

One of the unanswered questions from the first public hearing was whether there is any money available to compensate potentially thousands of people who may lose property value under the county’s new zoning plan.

The supervisors asked staff if money might be available from the Multiple-Species Conservation Fund or Transnet, the half-cent sales tax devoted to transportation projects.

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Eric Larson of San Diego’s Farm Bureau says county staff reported those funds cannot be used to compensate farmers.

“As we understand it, the answer is that funding is available for land preservation,” Larson said. “But only if that land has a habitat or wildlife protection value. It does not quite fit the criteria for farm protection.”

Larson says if less future development is permitted on farm land, it affects the farmers’ ability to borrow money, which affects their ability to stay in business.

The county’s existing General Plan was adopted more than 30 years ago.

The supervisors will not make a decision on which new land-use map to adopt before next year.

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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.