As the moment of truth looms near this November for the agency charged with finding a replacement for Lindbergh Field, its chairman painted a relatively positive picture for 2005 and beyond.
In the State of the Authority address given by Joseph Craver, chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, Monday, Feb. 13, years of searching and public input will come to a head as county voters prepare to ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ the final site in November.
Speaking to a packed board room, Craver summed up the gravity of the coming year for the authority as he told the audience 2006 will prove to be “a monumental year” as county voters make their decision, a decision that will “be one of this generation’s greatest public policy decisions ever made in our county.”
The impending deadline for the authority to choose a replacement site for Lindbergh Field, or San Diego International Airport (SDIA), was not lost on Craver who noted that 2006 is a homestretch.
“We are resolved to accomplish all tasks before us,” he said. “None of us agree to serve on this board to fail.”
Airport site selection aside, 2005 was a rosy year for SDIA. Despite a six percent growth in passenger use last year, or 1 million people, the airport continued to garner widespread praise for the ease and efficiency of its operations, including a first place most-improved award, a safety award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and was voted third best airport in the Americas.
But with SDIA expected to reach its passenger capacity by 2015, the authority has been on an often tedious and contentious hunt for a replacement site for more than three years, excluding the two years of searching by other government agencies.
The list of possible sites includes five military installations and two East County desert civilian locations. The costs associated with building an airport and high-speed maglev train in either Imperial County or Campo have been estimated to run more than $17 billion ” a hard pill to swallow, but not a roadblock, Craver said separately.
“We don’t see any roadblocks,” Craver said. “Is it going to be hard work? Yes.”
Craver also said support from the county’s elected officials in Sacramento and Washington D.C. would be “tremendously important.”
In order to make the tall order a bit more digestible, the authority will attempt to break the numbers down and put them in perspective for voters in coming months, Craver said, pointing out that the majority of the $17 billion is for the maglev train that would service the civilian sites and require a massive amount of earth moving and modifications to existing highways and infrastructure.
One way around absorbing those costs will be to incorporate the train into public applications outside of exclusive use for the airport, which could theoretically attract federal and state grants.

“If the maglev only serves the airport, then that’s a number we can’t afford,” Craver said.
Staff have until August 11 to submit ballot language to the County Registrar of Voters in time for the November ballot, leaving just over five months to hammer out a solution, although the authority has said it hopes to decide on a site by April.
The authority has also been engaged in talks with military personnel over possible joint-use scenarios with Marine Corps Air Stations in Miramar and East Miramar, Camp Pendleton, or North Island Naval Air Station.
“Our meetings with the military have been collaborative and cooperative,” Craver told the audience. “For this we are extremely grateful.”
Once approved, a new airport will take 15 to 20 years to build, while Craver warned in his address that customers could begin to notice adverse effects of crowding through a shortage of gates, ticket counters and other facilities in just four years.
“The fact can’t be denied that the airport is quickly running out of space,” he said.
In 2005, the authority’s board authorized staff to pursue a build-out of Terminal Two as part of the airport’s master plan. The expansion, which is meant to wring the last bit of use out of SDIA until a new airport is built, includes 10 new jet gates, new aircraft parking, a new apron and aircraft taxi lane and a new parking structure with enhanced vehicle circulation serving the terminal.
More than 17 million passengers used the airport in 2005, while almost 30 passenger and cargo airlines operate close to 300 departures daily from SDIA. The airport authority, which oversees the operation of all county airports, is funded through passenger and airline user fees.
For more information on the progress of the site selection, visit www.san.org.