"Lawmaker seeks delay of San Diego airport vote"

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Lawmaker seeks delay of airport vote
By DAN McSWAIN
The North County (CA) Times


A North County state lawmaker introduced a measure Wednesday that would
delay until 2008 a decision by San Diego County voters about building a
new airport and would bar local officials from studying the civilian use
of military bases until late in 2005.

The lawmaker, Assemblyman George Plescia, a Republican whose district
includes Escondido and Poway, says that federal officials may be more
likely to close one of the region's big military bases if local planners
are seen actively considering a civilian airport on a base. 

Plescia's bill would halt until November 2005 the San Diego Regional
Airport Authority's study of five military installations among nine
possible sites for a new airport. The bill also would push back until
2008 a countywide vote on the matter.
 
"By identifying our active military installations as potential sites,
the airport authority is communicating a willingness to approve of
closures," Plescia said. "We're trying to send a clear message to the
Department of Defense that we do value those bases."

A wide range of local officials ---- including county supervisors, city
council members and the entire local congressional delegation ---- has
geared up lobbying efforts to keep local installations safe from the
next round of federal base closings, scheduled to be decided upon in
2005. The officials have argued that the installations are vital to
national security and contribute mightily to the local economy.

In response to local pressure for a united front against base closures,
the airport authority in November decided to take another look at
civilian sites and to slow the process of evaluating the suitability of
military sites until after March, when Pentagon officials are due to
unveil a list of bases they want to close to save money.

"We are not studying the military bases," said Joe Craver, a San Diego
resident who is chairman of the airport authority. "We are not lobbying
in Washington for base closures, we are doing nothing until after the
list is released."

But that's not good enough for Plescia. The regional authority is moving
ahead with environmental surveys of the bases, a signal that the agency
is still interested in the sites. The assemblyman says all study should
cease until after November 2005, when a federal panel is scheduled to
review the Pentagon's list of doomed bases.

Under state law, the airport authority must present a plan to voters by
2006. Plescia said his bill gives the agency two more years.

He said that he has received support for his bill from some members of
the San Diego County state delegation. But the assemblyman said he
hasn't talked to enough lawmakers to judge his bill's chances in the
full Legislature. Most of those lawmakers are busy lobbying federal
officials to spare their bases.

Officials around the state are scrambling to build a case for protecting
nearby bases that pour money into regional economies. Federal officials
closed 450 bases nationwide, shutting 29 major bases in California, in
four rounds of cutbacks from 1988 to 1995. Military officials say the
next round could be the biggest yet, with a quarter of the nation's
installations on the chopping block.

The political effort to insulate San Diego County bases has put the
airport authority in the dicey position of appearing to root for at
least one major closure.

In October, the agency narrowed a list of possible airport sites to
seven, including five military bases. The sites include an expanded
Lindbergh Field or a new airport at either Camp Pendleton, Miramar
Marine Corps Air Station (at the existing airfield or at an east base
site), Naval Air Station North Island, March Air Reserve Base in
Riverside County and a privately owned location in Imperial County along
Interstate 8.

The list provoked a cascade of outrage from politicians who pointed out
that the agency was considering just one civilian site inside the
county.

Six local congressional representatives sent a letter to the airport
authority asking that it "immediately remove all the active military
bases from your list of potential sites." Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El
Cajon, the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said
that he preferred an expansion of Lindbergh.

A month later, the airport authority ordered consultants to take another
look, producing a new list that added sites in Borrego Springs and
Campo.

Agency consultants say San Diego County needs a 2,800-acre, rectangular
plot of ground to build a pair of 12,000-foot-long runways that could
operate at the same time.

The agency is trying to replace or expand Lindbergh Field in downtown
San Diego to handle predicted growth in the county's air traffic during
the next several decades. At a modest 500 acres, Lindbergh handles 15
million passengers each year. The facility is expected to run out of
room for cargo planes as early as 2006 and could fail by 2016 to cope
with growth in passengers.

In narrowing its list of preferred sites last year, the agency rejected
proposals to put an airport in Oceanside, Carlsbad or Ramona, among
other civilian areas.


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