What does San Diego airport get for $1 billion? According to Airport Authority’s master plan for Lindbergh Field, this will mean:
n 10 new gates, with another 10 expected for the next “needed” expansion;
n Going from 600 flights currently to 818 flights per day (noise, noise, noise);
n Vehicular traffic increase on Rosecrans Street, Nimitz Boulevard and Harbor Drive (estimated increase from 87,000 trips to 135,000 trips);
n No vehicular escape from the Peninsula area if there is a major fire or aircraft crash;
n Noise over schools will mean 164.5 minutes per day, or 496 hours per year, of potentially lost education time;
n Emissions: The airport environmental impact report indicates there is potentially a significant increase over CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act} thresholds in the way of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and particulate matter falling from aircraft.
After reading the Airport Authority’s Lindbergh Field Expansion Environmental Impact Report (EIR), I draw these conclusions:
n The quality of life on the Peninsula and surrounding area has deteriorated because traffic has doubled in the past two years, and, according to the EIR, the airport vehicle traffic will double again. Our area will be totally grid-locked, causing unsafe conditions. Evacuation of the area due to a fire or airplane crash would be impossible.
n Time of aircraft over schools and residents amounts to 4 to 6 hours per day of dumping 400 tons of particulate matter. The EIR indicates there will be “significant increases” over the CEQA thresholds of nitrogen and sulfur oxides which the school children and residents will be breathing.
n We need to think about all the EIRs for all the new development in the area, for example, the new hotels proposed for Harbor Island, hotels going up at Liberty Station, Sponge Bob Marriott Hotel next to the airport (ten stories, similar to Sunroad’s building next to Montgomery Field), new condos at the Kettenburg [Landing] and many others that I do not know about. All of these will increase traffic and noise in the Peninsula and surrounding area.
It’s important for the Airport Authority to accept the fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of San Diego with a quality airport. From its sustainability policy, sustainability is not solely an environmental undertaking but a holistic and concerted effort to balance our economic, operational, environmental and social interest of providing world-class customer service and enhanced quality of life for the region and the people you, the Airport Authority, serve.
Airport sustainability as a business strategy has both immediate and long-term benefits that can be measured. Airport Council International-North America has developed the following four sustainability elements to define airport sustainability: (E) economic viability, (O) operational excellence, (N) natural resource conservation and (S) social responsibility, collectively referred to as EONS.
The Airport Authority’s sustainability policy for Lindbergh does not meet the EONS. Your plan shows that the airport is at its capacity in 2015, only 7 years away. It will take 3 to 4 years to build the parking and 10 gates, so that leaves San Diego with 3 years before maximum capacity. The cost to San Diego: $1 billion.
My suggestion would be to build a world-class airport in the East Elliot area. This airport would provide two 12,000-foot runways which would service both air cargo and international flights, bringing the greatest income to the San Diego area, and would fit into the parameters of the EONS required by the Airport Council International””North America.
Let’s be thinking farther down the road than 2015, 2030 or 2050. San Diego needs 75 or maybe 100 years for planning. If we don’t take this opportunity now, there will be too much infill and no land will be available for another airport.
Please do not take an alternate location of the world-class airport off the table.
” Bill Ingram is a Point Loma resident and community observer.