Oceanside poised to blow it again

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, September 28, 2005 10:37 PM PDT ∞

It's hard to fathom the sudden push to shut down the small airport in Oceanside, and it leaves me wondering if this won't be yet another missed opportunity city residents will look back on with regret in 20 years.

Those in favor of shuttering the airport talk of putting in commercial development on the land, talk of the increase in tax revenue such development would bring the city. And when the talk gets around to rumors of a Costco landing there, well, from the grandiosity of the rhetoric, you'd think it was the Taj Mahal we were talking about instead of another warehouse store.

The other arguments I've heard in favor of closing the airport have been that the hangar and tie-down rents are too low, that the airport association is behind in its payments to the city, and that pilots won't adhere to the designated flight paths. But those are issues of poor management, not something wrong with the airport itself.

Here's the thing: As traffic gets worse and worse in San Diego County in coming decades, smaller regional airports ---- like Oceanside's ---- are going to become more and more important elements of our transportation infrastructure. In two decades' time, it's going to be easier to fly to Los Angeles than to drive there.

And once an airport is closed, it's gone forever. You're just not going to get a parcel of undeveloped land that big again.

For once, Oceanside's civic leaders ought to take a deep breath, step back and look down the road 20 or 30 years. McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad is rapidly changing from a community airport into a regional commercial hub; in a decade's time, there won't be room at McClellan-Palomar for the smaller Cessnas and Pipers that are a perfect fit at Oceanside.

At the same time, keeping the airport open doesn't preclude commercial development. The city of San Diego has done a superb job of clustering airport-friendly businesses immediately adjacent to Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa. Restaurants (several aviation-themed), hotels, freight shipping, light industrial ---- all these uses work well next to a small airport.

Yeah, a Costco might be nice. But closing the airport to get a Costco is just the sort of shortsighted planning that's hurt Oceanside so much in the past ---- that let Carlsbad get the mall, that let Carlsbad get the auto park.

For once, it would be nice to see Oceanside get some of the good things smart development can bring. (And as much real estate as the city owns, certainly there are other spots a Costco could be located.)

Before we give up on the airport and lose it forever, why not put some effort into making it work? Instead of trying to cripple the airport to make it look worse than it really is, why not try to turn it into a benefit for the people of Oceanside? A little creativity and some good management could go a long way toward that end.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5424 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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