The fight against Lindbergh Field took a more public tone this week after several community leaders, including District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer, held a press conference May 8 condemning any expansion of the airport to meet rising demand.
The public rejection, organized by the Peninsula Leadership Coalition, comes two weeks before airport officials review dual runway concepts for Lindbergh Field. The board for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority had asked their staff to come back with “creative” ideas that would be considered “outside the box” in regards to building a second runway at the present location.
The concepts will be different than the so-called Concept 6, which would have leveled a major portion of the Midway district to build a second parallel runway. That concept was voted down by the board Oct. 3, 2005, though it has since tried to develop ideas that would be contained within Lindbergh Field’s current footprint and possibly absorb the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD).
So far, concepts have included a second runway in a closed V-configuration that still would not allow for simultaneous take-offs and landings, a key motivation for a new airport.
“A second runway at Lindbergh Field is just a plain bad idea,” Faulconer told reporters. “The airport authority needs to get the message loud and clear ” Lindbergh Field is not the answer.”
The authority’s board will hear proposed concepts at a May 22 meeting, and around the same time receive the exhaustive comparative reports for the remaining military sites, which include air stations at Miramar East, Camp Pendleton and North Island. Board members will then pour over the data as they prepare to choose a site for the countywide ballot Nov. 7 sometime in early June.
Other speakers at the press conference took the opportunity to hammer out their staunch support of a modified version of the East Miramar concept currently under review and the subsequent redevelopment of Lindbergh Field.
Cynthia Cogner, chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, said using East Miramar for an international airport was the most prudent use of the land, arguing high-density housing would only exacerbate traffic congestion and other burdens on the city’s infrastructure.
“If it’s not used for a new airport, what will become there?” she said. “It will look worse than Los Angeles.”
Several board members for the airport authority have voiced concerns over the military’s strong rejection of any form of shared or exclusive use of their installations. Military representatives have repeatedly said that joint-use of a civilian airport with military operations is unsafe and undermines national security.
But that hasn’t stymied wide-ranging public opinion, from Miramar proponents to Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) pushing for a $17.4 billion maglev-airport combo in Imperial County.
“Anybody that can read a map can figure out that if you’re going to build an airport that serves San Diego, it’s going to be Miramar,” Greg Finley, spokesman for the coalition, said separately.
Faulconer would not say where his colleagues on the City Council stood on the issue, but said the city would begin to play a more prominent role once a decision by the airport authority had been made.
“I don’t want to prejudge the airport authority’s decision,” he said. “There will be an appropriate role for us.”
For their part, the airport authority has refused to shy away from any possibility that may provide a solution to what is becoming an ominous task ” choosing a new airport site.
For the past two years, the authority has whittled the list of potential sites down to a list of essentially six. Three of those are civilian ” Lindbergh Field, Campo/Boulevard and Imperial County desert ” while the rest include MCAS Miramar East, Camp Pendleton and NAS North Island.
Diana Lucero, spokeswoman for the airport authority, said the board has always heard the concerns of the community, but that the process must be thorough.
“It’s simply a matter of due diligence and making sure that everything is considered and studied,” she said. “No decisions have been made yet.”