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Airport News, "San Diego Airport economic study OK'd: SANDAG also supports upgrade plan for current facility"
Saturday, September 25, 1999
Airport economic study OK'd | SANDAG also supports upgrade plan for current
facility
Anthony Millican
STAFF WRITER
San Diego Union-Tribune
Hoping to avoid the pitfall of past airport debates, the San Diego
Association of Governments decided to first quantify the economic impact of
a new international airport and later answer the question of where it
should be located.
SANDAG's board voted 18-0 yesterday to support the Port District's plan for
phased improvements to Lindbergh Field while the agencies simultaneously
partner to find a new airport.
The board stopped short of authorizing an inventory of potential sites,
which had been urged by some business leaders.
Instead, SANDAG members authorized spending up to $325,000 to conduct the
economic study and hold a "public involvement program" that would present
findings to residents, civic groups and other public agencies.
Port Executive Director Dennis Bouey, who came under fire a couple of
months ago for publicizing the plan before meeting with certain elected
officials, was noticeably relieved.
"I'm delighted," Bouey said after the meeting. "We presented this dual
track system and wanted to take it to the public and make sure they
understood what we wanted to accomplish. At the same time, we want to work
with SANDAG. What we've accomplished, what you saw today, is widespread
support from the community for what we want to accomplish."
The Port District operates Lindbergh Field. SANDAG is the county's regional
planner on aviation matters. It is governed by a board made up council
members or mayors from the region's 18 cities and a supervisor from county
government. Poway's representative was absent yesterday.
Subcommittees of the Port Commission and SANDAG will team to oversee the
economic analysis and make recommendations to their respective boards.
San Diego City Councilman Byron Wear, whose district includes the
neighborhoods surrounding Lindbergh Field, said the present airport's land
poses exciting redevelopment possibilities without an airport there.
However, Wear criticized the port's contingency plan -- a second runway
through the Marine Corps Recruit Depot near Pacific Highway -- if efforts
for a new airport fail.
"It really wouldn't buy us a lot -- the port is estimating five or eight
years of (extended) life," said Wear, who is not on SANDAG's board.
Julie Meier Wright, president of the San Diego Regional Economic
Development Corp., said SANDAG should move "with all due speed" toward
accommodating the region's short- and long-term air travel demand.
"Airports are really critical to the kind of `new economy' companies EDC
(the Economic Development Corp.) works with," Wright said. "High-tech and
biotech companies tend to travel much more than other kinds of industries,
and there are reasons to believe the need to travel will continue to grow."
Because of the long lead time required to build a new airport, SANDAG
should immediately inventory all potential sites that are not constrained
by environment and topography, she said.
Given San Diego's hilly terrain, it could be a short list, said Board of
Supervisors Chairwoman Pam Slater, a SANDAG board member.
However, John Chalker, a representative of the Greater San Diego Chamber of
Commerce, said SANDAG should leave siting for a later date. Earlier efforts
have died when specific locations were brought up, Chalker said.
Most SANDAG members concurred. Some wondered whether airlines, which with
their customers ultimately foot the bill, would support a new facility.
Thomas Smisek, an airline pilot and Coronado's mayor, said San Diego could
not fill direct flights to Hawaii so Delta AirLines scrapped the route.
Even a San Diego-Los Angeles-Hawaii route did not last, Smisek said.
Delta does not fly, "and neither does anybody else fly, a jet of any size
to Los Angeles," said Smisek, a SANDAG board member.
"It's all commuter aircraft," he said. "There aren't any large airplanes
that fly from San Diego to Los Angeles. That tells us something."
Bouey, who formerly headed Philadelphia International Airport, said a
modern airport with increased capacity eventually would win the support of
airlines.
"In the next 20 years, there's a million more people coming to this
community," Bouey said. "I think the market is here. I think it is going to
get larger over time."
Bouey has proposed a series of modest steps to address passenger demand at
Lindbergh Field. The first step calls for construction of the 10-gate North
Terminal on Pacific Highway. The primary tenant would be Southwest
Airlines. That would shift 30 percent of airport-related traffic from North
Harbor Drive to Pacific Highway, port officials say.
A second step would include construction of a transportation center at
Pacific Highway and Palm Street by 2010. SANDAG members supported moving up
construction of the center.
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