Business group endorses airport measure

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Tuesday, September 12, 2006 10:07 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO -- Proponents of a proposal to build an airport on Miramar Marine Corps Air Station picked up a key endorsement Tuesday when the board of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., a group representing the region's leading businesses, voted 28-8 to endorse the controversial November ballot measure.

At the same time, said Julie Meier Wright, the group's president and chief executive officer, the board called on airport officials to continue making improvements at Lindbergh Field and wring the most capacity possible out of the 661-acre airfield.

Wright said the board also suggested that, before any airport is built, county voters should get another opportunity years later to vote on a specific site construction plan for an airport at Miramar ---- if one is eventually devised.

The measure voters will see in November is more vague. It will ask voters to give the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority the green light to try to negotiate the lease or purchase, between now and 2020, of approximately 3,000 acres somewhere on the 23,000-acre base for a commercial airport.

"It's probably not the best ballot language, but it encourages the dialogue (between the authority and military) to start," Wright said.

The measure will appear as Proposition A on Nov. 7. It is the culmination of 3 1/2 years of study of potential sites. The board in June rejected such finalist candidates as Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Imperial County and Campo, and named Miramar its preferred choice.

The Marines have said repeatedly a commercial airport is not welcome at Miramar, and such an operation there would dangerously mix commercial airliners and military fighter jets.

The authority, meanwhile, maintains Lindbergh will run out of room to handle San Diego County's aviation traffic in the next two decades. More than 17 million passengers passed through Lindbergh's gates last year and 30 million are forecasted to fly in and out of San Diego by 2030.

"We recognize that Miramar is an essential component of the military force's structure today," Wright said.

But she said most board members believe the military mission will change and open a door for use of a portion of Miramar.

"The bottom line is that the most promising growth industries are global industries," Wright said, saying an unrestricted airport will be crucial to the future success of the biotechnology and communications industries. "They manufacture valuable products that are often shipped by air."

While some debate has centered on whether Lindbergh can be stretched to serve the county a few more decades, eventually it will run out of room, Wright said.

"I think that's the wrong issue to discuss," she said. "We're really trying to look at the needs of the region in 2050 and 2075. It will be a darn shame if we can't come to grips with our airport needs."

-- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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