"Panel back at work to trim San Diego airport sites"

Monday, August 4, 2003

Panel back at work to trim airport sites
Group to determine criteria for selection of regional facility
By Jeff Ristine
THE SAN DIEGO (CA) UNION-TRIBUNE


The search for a regional airport site heads into a critical phase this
month as a panel studying 18 proposed locations decides how to trim the
list.

Reactivated last week after months of dormancy, the group began its most
detailed look at the ease of access, noise impacts, terrain obstructions and
other issues that will figure into the selection of possible airport sites.

By the end of August, the group hopes to decide how to apply the criteria
and deal with each site's drawbacks in a way that will winnow the options to
a more manageable handful.

"If we can't operate the airport in a (given) location, that is a fatal
flaw," Nick Johnson, vice president of the international airport consulting
firm Landrum & Brown, said in a presentation to the group at a Harbor Island
hotel Tuesday.

Likewise, if building an airport at a particular site appears impractical,
Johnson said, there is little reason to keep that location on the list.

The panel, which goes by the name Public Working Group, was created by the
San Diego Association of Governments in 2001 to work on a comprehensive
airport location effort.

The 32 members include representatives of public agencies, the Navy and
Marine Corps, environmental and citizen groups, business, the Federal
Aviation Administration, and air passenger and cargo carriers.

The group now is under the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority,
which plans to make the final cut and submit one or more possible locations
to county voters for approval in 2004 or 2006.

The group had not met since last fall to give the newly appointed authority
time to settle into its other responsibilities, but consultants and
authority staff continued their analysis of the locations.

The effort to identify a site is based on an assumption that San Diego
International Airport can't possibly be expanded to meet the region's
long-term passenger and cargo needs. The goal is to conduct the most
comprehensive examination of the region's air transportation options and
come up with a plan that would meet the demand by 2030 and then serve the
region for decades.

The 18 sites under consideration include some concepts in which Lindbergh
Field would continue to operate as a short-hop facility, perhaps serving
destinations up to 500 miles away.

Some involve military bases the federal government would have to walk away
from – joint use isn't considered workable – and others would be "highly
inflammatory," to use Johnson's words, to nearby residents.

Nine sites are occupied or adjacent to some type of air operation: the
McClellan-Palomar Airport area in Carlsbad; the Oceanside Municipal Airport
area; the Ramona Airport area; Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and,
separately, the East Miramar portion of the Marine base; North Island Naval
Air Station; March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County; Tijuana Rodriguez
International Airport; and Otay Mesa between Brown Field and the Tijuana
airport.

Also being studied are the National City bay front; Coronado near the Naval
Radio Receiving Facility, called the Salt Marsh Naval Communications area;
the Silver Strand in Coronado; Camp Pendleton; Warner Springs; and a vaguely
defined "desert site" in southwestern Imperial County.

Rounding out the list are an offshore airport as far as three miles into the
ocean, a combination of Lindbergh Field and one of four North County or the
Riverside County sites, and a combination of Lindbergh Field and either
North Island or the Tijuana international airport.

Johnson said the task facing the group at its next meeting, Aug. 26, is to
decide how to apply some increasingly selective criteria to the sites to
come up with a shorter list.

According to information provided to the panel, a decision to drop sites
with significant terrain obstructions, for example, would eliminate
McClellan-Palomar, Oceanside, Ramona, Otay Mesa and Warner Springs.

A decision to eliminate sites more than 45 minutes from at least half the
county's population would rule out eight sites: McClellan-Palomar,
Oceanside, Ramona, March Air Reserve Base, Camp Pendleton, Otay Mesa, Warner
Springs and the Imperial County desert.

Five sites would require 2,000 or more residents to be relocated:
McClellan-Palomar, Oceanside, North Island, the National City bay front and
the Salt Marsh Naval Communications area.

For each proposal, the panel also has information on the acreage of wetlands
and vernal pools that would be disturbed, the number of on-site endangered
plant and animal species, and the amount of earthwork involved in building
the airport.

After deciding how to apply selection criteria, the group tentatively is
scheduled to recommend specific sites for further consideration by the
airport authority in September. By October, the list of possible sites
should be down to "six or seven," board Chairman Joseph Craver said in a
recent interview.

At least one option appears to be almost out of the running.

Sunil Harman, director of airport system planning for the airport authority,
said an offshore airport reached by a causeway off Ocean Beach could cost
$100 billion, and would have no potential for expansion.

The idea has been abandoned every place it has been considered, Harman said.

Ray Robbins of the San Diego Downtown Partnership scoffed at the idea of an
airport along the Silver Strand. Robbins said the group should consider
whether potential sites are "marketable."

An overlay of possible runways for a North Island airport, Robbins said,
appeared to "take out" the Hotel del Coronado and block warships from
reaching North Island.

"That's not a workable plan," he said.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************