"Carlsbad, Oceanside still on San Diego airport list"

Monday, September 23, 2002

Carlsbad, Oceanside still on airport list
BY DAVE DOWNEY 
The North County Times - San Diego (CA)


CARLSBAD ---- Opponents of two potential sites for a new international
airport on the North County coast say neither is a good candidate
because both are small and in densely populated areas. 

And they say this past week's fatal midair plane collision 1.5 miles
northwest of Carlsbad's McClellan-Palomar Airport underscored some
challenges that would be faced if a regional body chooses to seriously
consider either site.  

The new San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is in the middle of
a $1.9 million study examining sites for an international airport that
could either replace San Diego's cramped Lindbergh Field or complement
it. 

In the spring, consultants eliminated 15 sites from the list of
candidates because, they said, it was obvious that each of the locations
would not work. Among them were Orange County's former El Toro military
base, which voters rejected for an airport; a filled-in Mission Bay,
with enormous environmental and political challenges; and the Temecula
area's once-open French Valley, now filled with rooftops that house many
San Diego County-bound commuters. 

But 18 locations remain in the running and, to the frustration of many
locally, two are on the north coast. Those sites are the areas around
Palomar and Oceanside Municipal airports. 

Both are being examined for the potential to become a full-service
international airport that serves the long-haul market to destinations
such as the East Coast, Midwest and overseas, with Lindbergh Field being
downsized to a facility that primarily offers service to such nearby
locales as San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix. 

And both North County sites are being examined for their potential to
replace Lindbergh entirely. 

Airport authority officials say Carlsbad and Oceanside will remain on
the list at least until consultants narrow the field to approximately
half a dozen finalists in early 2003. A final preferred site is not
expected to be selected by the authority until late next year. 

Elimination likely in next round 

Oceanside Mayor Terry Johnson, who is serving on the airport authority's
interim board, which is going to be replaced by a permanent nine-person
board in December, said there is no reason for coastal North County
residents to fret about a noisy, monster neighbor moving in next door
anytime soon. 

"It is a numbers game, and Oceanside and Carlsbad will probably be
knocked off in the next round," Johnson said. 

Area officials point out that Oceanside Municipal Airport, at 36 acres,
is particularly small, and there is little open space around it. There
are hundreds of houses to the east, south and west, and new homes are
sprouting to the north. 

Bob Maxwell, a business management and engineer consultant who resides
in Oceanside, noted that consultants have said the region needs as much
as 3,000 acres for a modern airport with a pair of 12,000-foot-long
runways and several terminals. Maxwell said nowhere near 3,000 acres is
available anywhere near Oceanside Municipal Airport. 

"By the sheer amount of land that is going to be required for this kind
of facility, it is just out of the question for Oceanside," Maxwell
said. 

In short, he observed, building an airport in the city would require
taking out whole neighborhoods. 

Local officials also said the location would present daunting
environmental challenges because it is in the San Luis Rey river bed,
home to several endangered plants and animals. And they said it would be
a difficult place to build because of a topography marked by steeply
rising hills to the north and south. 

"Only two words come to mind: insane and absurd," said C.C. Charity,
leader of the Oceanside Citizens Against the Airport group, which
doesn't like the noise coming from the tiny general aviation airport
there as it is, much less from a giant regional hub. 

"There is just not enough room," said Pat Williams, owner of Sea Wind
Aviation, an airport business. "It would be impossible. This could be
made into a very nice little municipal airport ---- but not ever an
international airport." 

Maxwell, who has publicly called on airport authority officials to take
Oceanside off the list, said he cannot understand why it was left on. An
East County airport, Gillespie Field, was taken off because of dense
nearby development. But Maxwell figures the area around Oceanside
Municipal is just about as densely populated. 

North County reaches bigger market 

Ted Anasis, airport planner for San Diego International Airport
(Lindbergh Field), however, said Oceanside offers the region something
East County doesn't: an opportunity to serve a much bigger market. 

"The North County location is important because it would potentially
draw passengers not only from San Diego County, but from Orange County
and Riverside County," Anasis said. 

That same market consideration comes into play with Palomar, which is
quite a bit larger at 487 acres and almost the size of Lindbergh. 

The Carlsbad corporate and commuter airport, which today has the
second-most takeoffs and landings in the county after Lindbergh, would
seem to stand a better chance of surviving the next cut, airport
observers said. It is 30 miles from downtown San Diego ---- compared
with Oceanside's distance of 40 miles ---- and would more likely meet
the authority's goal of staying within 45 minutes of the center of the
county's population. 

Palomar Airport also is close to some large chunks of open space to the
east that conceivably could be purchased and combined with Palomar and
turned into a big airport. 

Still, the existing facility is bordered by industrial park buildings
along Palomar Airport Road and the San Diego County Animal Shelter, and
there are many homes to the north and south. Last week's fatal airplane
crash near Palomar Airport underscored how rapidly the area around it is
developing. 

While the wreckage rained down on an empty field, construction workers
and city inspectors had to run for cover. And the spot is expected to be
covered with 700 Kelly Ranch homes in a year or two. 

That's not all, said Jan Sobel, president and chief executive officer
for the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. 

"The city just approved more than 600 homes and an industrial complex
(in the Bressi Ranch project) at the east of the end of the runway,"
Sobel said. "No one wants to be a Not-In-My-Back-Yard complainer because
if everybody does that then we will never have a new airport. But I just
don't think it would ever fit in Carlsbad." 

Sobel said the local business community hasn't taken a formal position
on the matter. 

Get ready for a fight 

But Hal Kristal of Oceanside, a retired pilot and Air Force navigator
who used to reside in Carlsbad, said the residents almost certainly
would object to big jets taking off over thousands of expensive homes to
the west with million-dollar views of the Pacific. The deafening noise
also likely would fall on the ears of tourists visiting nearby Legoland
California, the Carlsbad Flower Fields and South Carlsbad State Beach. 

"You've got upscale people living in that area," Kristal said. "They can
afford, and they have the intellect, to put up a very good fight. And
they would." 

Indeed, said Carlsbad Councilwoman Ramona Finnila, "The current populace
would never go for it." And airport officials should keep in mind, she
said, that a city ordinance requires any airport expansion to be
approved by Carlsbad voters. 

"There are obvious environmental concerns about having airports at both
of those sites," said Mike Hix, a regional planner for the San Diego
Association of Governments, a planning body helping the authority with
the study. 

"I hate to see people have to wait a little longer to see whether sites
in their area stay on the list," Hix said. "But we want to be thorough.
We want to do it right. No one wants to backtrack on this. I mean, how
many times have we been through this process?" 

In the last four decades, about 30 airport site studies have been
undertaken, and yet the region is no closer to replacing 526-acre
Lindbergh Field, the smallest major metropolitan airport in the United
States. 

Leaving no stone unturned 

When the region finally gets around to choosing a site, said airport
authority member Byron Wear, a San Diego councilman, officials want to
make sure that they have looked at every possibility, no matter how
remote it might seem on the surface. That is why, for example, the idea
of a floating offshore airport was put on the list ---- and remains on
the list. 

"People always come back and question, 'Well, did you check here? Did
you check there?' " Wear said. "This long, exhaustive process may
trouble some communities and roll some eyeballs. But everyone needs to
be patient with the process." 

Officials had earlier planned to select a site by the end of this year,
but later extended the process several months, delaying even the next
cut to half a dozen or so sites until after the permanent airport
authority board is seated and up and running. 

Under laws that set up the authority, its board could schedule a
countywide election on a plan as early as 2004, or wait as late as 2006.


Thella Bowens, the authority's interim executive director, said 2004
would be rather aggressive and she expects the election will be held
later. 

"Quite frankly, what's the rush? We've waited many years," Bowens said.
"Why not wait a few more months and get it right?"

Attached Photo:

A jet takes off from Carlsbad's McClellan-Palomar Airport Wednesday
morning.

carlsbad.bmp