Bases now front and center for airport authority
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | ∞
SAN DIEGO ---- Can civilian jetliners and cargo aircraft share one of the county's military airfields, solving a decades-old search for the region's next airport?
Those in charge of a search for a new airport site will begin answering that question next week when they zero in on three local bases.
On Monday morning, a committee of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is scheduled to examine the feasibility of building a civilian airport at one of three bases ---- Camp Pendleton, north of Oceanside, North Island Naval Air Station or Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in northeastern San Diego.
Committee member and Lemon Grove Mayor Mary Sessom said Friday the staff is suggesting the panel consider the following:
Until now, the authority had muzzled itself from considering the base sites. It did so after the county's congressional and state legislative delegations asked it to refrain until the latest round of national base closures and realignments was over.
That work has now ended. The base closure commission did not target any of this region's bases, meaning the authority will now study whether a base on a war footing because of the ongoing insurgency in Iraq is the answer to the region's long-term airport needs.
"What I am hoping is that we are able to establish a decent dialogue with the Department of Defense," said Paul Nieto, an authority board member who also is chairman of its Strategic Planning Committee. "This is the first time we have been able to talk about this stuff and I believe people are expecting us to give it a real thorough look."
Nieto's committee is slated to start that work when it meets at 10 a.m. Monday at Lindbergh Field's Wright Conference Room on the second floor of the Commuter Terminal.
Lindbergh, which now serves about 16 million airline passengers a year, is forecast to be out of room to handle what the authority and Federal Aviation Administration project will be 35 million passengers by the year 2030.
Adoption of any of the staff's base recommendations would mean expansion of Lindbergh would be dropped.
Besides the bases and Lindbergh, the authority also is considering a site near Campo in the southeastern portion of the county and a desert site in Imperial County just over the border with San Diego County.
Nominally on the list but not getting any further study is a site near Borrego Springs.
Nieto said he disagrees with Sessom, who considers the bases off-limits and that studying them would be a waste of time and money. Sessom has said she believes already-completed cursory studies satisfy a mandate from the state Legislature that the base sites be studied.
"I think it is premature to disqualify anything and to come to any conclusion now would be jumping the gun," Nieto said. "We have to put aside our preconceived ideas and really look at what will satisfy our mandate from the state to figure out how we are going to handle our future airport needs."
Everywhere the authority turns, there are military implications, he added. Expansion of Lindbergh is complicated by the adjacent Marine Corps Recruit Depot. The Imperial County site has issues involving established military flight routes.
"There's no real easy answer out there," Nieto said.
Sessom said she remains convinced the military sites are untouchable.
"Just to study the bases gives the public a sense that they are available," she said. "Why jump through these hoops for something that is not going to be there?"
Another member of the authority's nine-member board, Oceanside's Robert Maxwell, said he believes the agency must conduct comprehensive studies of each base.
"Our objective is to do a complete evaluation," Maxwell said.
The authority has said it wants to have its recommendation on the best site for a new airport or an expansion of Lindbergh decided by April. The issue will go before county voters next November for an up or down vote.
A rejection of the recommendation would force the authority to start a new search.
"If we get a 'no' vote it means to me that we will have to go back and find a solution that voters will support because we have to address this issue," Maxwell said.
A new airport would be built with federal money and authority-issued bonds repaid with airport revenues and no direct out-of-pocket expense for county residents.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
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Pat wrote on Nov 12, 2005 7:28 AM:If we are truly looking to the fututre sharing an existing base is nonsensical. An airport that would serve San Diego and Riverside counties would be best built near Campo or in Riverside County. Sharing is a cop out.
Ginny wrote on Nov 12, 2005 11:35 AM:I find it absolutely incomprehensible that the military (any branch) would even consider sharing its airfield with civilians. The ramifications of this "sharing" are just too manifold to overcome, and too ludicrous to spend time studying. Time would be better spent looking at non-military sites.
Dave wrote on Nov 12, 2005 4:32 PM:Sharing is a realistic option that would only be written off by people who have never left SoCal. It works in many other areas without any issues to serve large areas, usually in conjuction with an existing airfield like Lindbergh. Hopefully this county will have time to become educated on the subject before the Fall '06 vote.
James wrote on Nov 12, 2005 9:56 PM:The Mlitary use approximately 33% of the Miramar Land area which leaves plenty of room for Commercial use. Hickam Field and Honolulu International Airport are prime examples of joint usage. Tme Marines should move their Training Facility to Camp Pendleton so that needed expansion of Lindburg Field can occur. North County should wake up or Idiocy such as a Desert Location will occur.
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