"Feedback varies on San Diego airport options"

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Feedback varies on airport options 
First of 5 meetings draws small turnout
By Jeff Ristine
The San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune


Less than three weeks before a decision that has eluded San Diego for
decades, the choice for a regional airport site isn't getting easier for
anyone. 

A group of residents considering the options yesterday left airport staff
and consultants with responses ranging from Miramar to Camp Pendleton and
back to Lindbergh Field. 

Ron Telkes of Point Loma was among those favoring a bid for joint use of
Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. 

"Just like real estate," Telkes said. "Location, location, location." 

The turnout was small but lively for the first of five "community
conversations," designed to assist the San Diego County Regional Airport
Authority select from five options for a new airport site on June 5. In a
Harbor Island hotel ballroom prepared and lightly catered for up to 300
guests, fewer than 20 attended. 

A straw poll near the end of the discussion found seven votes for Miramar
and seven for Camp Pendleton, the two choices identified by consultants as
posing the fewest problems in sheer feasibility. Two of the Camp Pendleton
partisans said it should serve as a supplement to Lindbergh Field, not a
replacement. 

Two others thought the region should try to make Lindbergh Field, which was
dedicated in 1928, last indefinitely. One visitor endorsed North Island;
another urged the agency to resurrect East Miramar as an option. There was
no support for East County's Boulevard or the Imperial County desert, the
only two civilian sites under review. 

Attendees got a brief overview of the site-selection project to date, then
were split into groups to discuss - not argue - what the Airport Authority
should do. The choice of the agency's nine-member board of directors will
appear as a Nov. 7 advisory ballot measure. 

Steve Scarvelis of Mission Hills picked Camp Pendleton because it "has the
least impact overall" on the surrounding population. Additional noise from
Miramar, Scarvelis said, will affect "a tremendous amount of people living
here. ... I don't think that's fair." 

Don Rodee of Fallbrook said he agrees with military figures who said field
carrier landing practice in F-18 jets at Miramar can't be done with civilian
jets in the same location. 

"These things just don't work well together," Rodee said, suggesting that
someone should ask the Federal Aviation Administration whether it would even
permit it to happen.
 
Terry O'Toole of Ocean Beach not only favored Miramar, he also said the
facility should be turned over to San Diego altogether. O'Toole said if the
Marines think joint use is incompatible with their own activity, it's the
military that should be moving. 

"They're civil servants," O'Toole said. 

Elizabeth Klugh of Bankers Hill wants the airport left where it is, a choice
shunned by airport authority leaders who think the 661-acre facility cannot
fully meet demand for air transportation after about 15 more years. Much of
San Diego's tourism, Klugh said, stems from the convenience of Lindbergh
Field, minutes from downtown and other visitor attractions. 

The issue will dominate a meeting of the board's strategic planning
committee tomorrow. It is uncertain whether the panel will forward a
recommendation to the full board.

More meetings ahead
 
Four more "community conversations" to explore public views on the airport
site-selection project are scheduled for tomorrow through Thursday.

 Mission Valley: 6-9 p.m. tomorrow, Town & Country Resort & Convention
Center, Regency Ballroom, Regency Complex/East Side, 500 Hotel Circle N.

 San Marcos: 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Palomar College, Student Union Dining
Facility, 1140 W. Mission Road. Parking in lots 1, 2 and 5 only.

 Alpine: 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Alpine Community Center, 1830 Alpine Blvd. 

 Bonita: 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Chula Vista Golf Course, Vista Banquet Room,
4475 Bonita Road.

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

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


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