Former lawmaker: Miramar vote opens door to opportunity

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 8, 2006 11:24 PM PST ∞

While Tuesday's lopsided margin on Proposition A slammed the door shut on a commercial airport at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, at least for the time being, it opened the door to a wide range of opportunities for dressing up Lindbergh Field.

At least that was the take on the election from former state Sen. Steve Peace, who wrote the 2001 law that created the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority and assigned it the task of searching for places to build a modern, large airport to replace Lindbergh.

Prop. A, which proposed initiating a dialogue between the authority and Marines to see if there was a way to use 3,000 of Miramar's 23,000 acres for an airport, was overwhelming defeated by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin.

"This is a great opportunity to make Lindbergh the very best it can be, and make it an airport that can not only serve San Diego in the 21st century, but the 22nd century as well," Peace said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

While at 661 acres it may be small by metropolitan airport standards, Peace said, Lindbergh has advantages many other airports lack, such as its nearness to downtown San Diego and a number of tourist attractions. He said the location plays right into the area's lucrative tourism economy, built on such attractions as SeaWorld, Mission Bay, Legoland California and the San Diego Zoo.

"We can not only make Lindbergh work, we can make it an incredibly cool place," Peace said. "This is one of the few places where you can land at an airport and already 'be there.' "

With a little creativity, he said, the region could find a way to boost Lindbergh's capacity -- airport officials say its one runway will max out within two decades -- and boost tourism. Rail-based transit systems could enable airline passengers to travel directly to the San Diego Zoo, for example, Peace said.

"They should already feel they are on vacation the moment they step out of the airplane," he said.

Peace said he believes the message voters sent Tuesday was that they don't want to move the airport to Miramar and that they want to continue flying out of Lindbergh, despite its shortcomings. Besides being small, Lindbergh has only one runway and it is too short to accommodate fully loaded 747s.

"They're not dumb," Peace said of the voters. "They recognize that there are limitations. But they are OK with that."

Airport authority board member Mary Sessom, Lemon Grove's mayor, interpreted the message a differently, suggesting voters were not naming Lindbergh their long-term choice for a regional airport.

"I think they're simply saying, 'Miramar is not available, so go figure out another way to solve this transportation problem,' " Sessom said.

The problem, as defined by the authority, is that the demand for flying out of San Diego is projected to soar from 17 million passengers last year to 30 million by 2030, and Lindbergh's runway is capable of handling a maximum of 25 million passengers. During the agency's four-year site search, officials insisted that there is no feasible way to expand Lindbergh to significantly increase its life.

"The vote hasn't changed the fact that we have a need to increase the capacity of our air transportation facilities," said Bob Maxwell of Oceanside, a North County representative on the board. "And there is no way that Lindbergh Field can be expanded to meet that need."

Sessom disagreed.

Now that Miramar has been rejected, she said, it is time to set aside "preconceived ideas" and get creative. Sessom said it is time to examine ways to squeeze a second runway onto Lindbergh, even if it can't be built parallel to the existing runway to maximize capacity, and to coordinate future-airport planning with other Southern California counties.

Peace said it is also time to build a connection to the region's commuter rail system and explore ways to expand Lindbergh's 661-acre footprint. He said regional officials should try to obtain adjacent properties, such as the rental car lots along the bayfront and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

Now that the region has rallied behind the military, it is time for the Marines to come to the aid of the region and offer up their West Coast boot camp, he said.

Joe Craver, airport board chairman, said one of the first orders of business will be to improve Lindbergh through a master plan in the development stages. Craver said the authority has planned a $550 million expansion that will add 10 gates to Terminal 2 West, remodel Terminal 1 and establish overnight parking for jets. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2008 and be completed by 2010.

Another will be to finalize land use plans for the county's 16 airports. Six plans, including the one for Ramona, are up for consideration next week, Craver said.

Then there is the day-to-day responsibility of running Lindbergh.

"(The authority) had four tasks, and one of them has been completed," said board member Bill Lynch of Rancho Santa Fe.

Indeed, said Peace, author of the airport authority law, it would take new legislation for the agency to undertake another site search.

It is unclear what the three remaining responsibilities will look like a year from now as Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, is preparing to introduce legislation to scale back tasks and make the agency more accountable to the public.

Kehoe said Tuesday's vote showed "the airport authority is out of touch with the people of San Diego."

Lynch said result had more to do with timing than anything else. Had the vote not occurred during a time of war, the outcome might have been different, he said.

"Everything was against us," Lynch said.

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

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