In February, Peninsula Community Planning Board vetted the environmental impacts of San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 1 expansion, as well as discussing the creation of a standing environmental subcommittee to act as the liaison between the advisory group and local schools.
PCPB board member Fred Kosmo, who represents PCPB on an airport committee, updated the group on the airport’s plans. He said Terminal 1’s expansion “will lead to 38% more flights over Point Loma and environs in the next five years, adding to a significant amount of increased noise and pollution negatively impacting the quality of people’s lives and their health.”
Kosmo noted a lawsuit has been filed by an ad hoc group of community activists, known as Quiet Skies San Diego, challenging the adequacy of environmental documents out for a public review on the airport’s planned terminal expansion.
Board members Mandy Havlik and Eva Schmitt introduced three environmental-related issues. Havlik was successful in asking the group to approve a letter of support for a tree-planting initiative in the Peninsula.
Havlik also read a proposed letter of support by the group into the record, which discussed how shade provided by trees, especially tall ones, helps keep temperatures down in urban landscapes largely denuded of trees.
“I’m in total support of being proactive in bringing more trees to our community,” concurred board member Margaret Virissimo.
Schmitt recommended the advisory group establish a standing environmental subcommittee, in addition to allowing such a newly created body to act as liaison with Point Loma High School’s Green Peace Club. She contended that was necessary to acquaint students with the planning group and give students their voice in it.
Kosmo, noting that the airport Terminal 1 expansion environmental impact report is “hundreds of pages long,” half-jokingly pointed out that might be a good place for a future PCPB environmental subcommittee to start work.
Noting the prospect of establishing a liaison between PCPB and PLHS was “a good idea,” board member David Dick nonetheless added he could not backlinking the planning group with the high school’s Green Peace Club, which he characterized as a “political activist organization.”
“We should make the direction we give to an environmental subcommittee more robust and general, providing the environmental committee as a point of contact with the planning group,” said Dick.
Planner Scott Deschenes objected to the original proposal that PLHS be singled out exclusively noting, “There are lots of other schools, including private schools, in the area.”
Regarding a liaison between PCPB and students, board member Robert Tripp Jackson cautioned that “you need to make sure students are reciprocating.”
In other action:
• Local government representatives Michaela Valk representing Todd Gloria of the 78th Assembly District and Miller Saltzman representing State Sen. Toni Atkins, presented outgoing PCPB board members chair Robert Goldyn and vice-chair Scott Deschenes with certificates of recognition for their years of voluntary service on the advisory group. Deschenes and Goldyn announced recently they would be resigning their positions on the board after the group’s annual election to be held Thursday, March 19 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Point Loma/Hervey Library, 3701 Voltaire St.
– An ongoing rift on PCPB continued, as board member Lucky Morrison unsuccessfully asked group election chair Scott Deschenes to step down. Planners voted overwhelmingly against Morrison’s contention that inappropriate emails sent by Deschenes to group members after last year’s election disqualified him from being election chair.
– PCPB’s 2020 candidates forum is scheduled for Thursday, March 5 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Point Loma/Hervey Branch Library, 3702 Voltaire St.
