A supplemental airport in North County failed to muster enough support for further review by airport officials in a largely symbolic discussion at a May 1 meeting.
The board for the San Diego Regional Airport Authority voted 6-3 against a recommendation to do a more in-depth analysis on a single-runway airport just north of Escondido, about 40 miles from downtown San Diego. The scenario would keep Lindbergh Field open as the primary airport after undergoing significant upgrades meant to maximize capacity.
“It’s just as clear as a bell that you can’t put an airport that far from downtown,” said board member William D. Lynch.
The board nixed the concept in February after a broad market feasibility study found that the supplementary airport would have a difficult time competing with airports serving the Los Angeles area. Additionally, low passenger use would make it impractical to pay for and extremely high per passenger costs would drive airlines away.
But board members Robert Maxwell, who represents North County, Mary Teresa Sessom and Xema Jacobson had argued that no previous site concept had ever been voted down because of cost and that a more in-depth comparative analysis was warranted.
“I don’t think a significant analysis was presented to support that case,” Maxwell said.
Board member Paul Nieto countered that even if cost estimates were halved, a $2 billion airport serving three million annual passengers would still result in costs as high as $80 per passenger for airlines, well above the most expensive airports that come in near $25 per passenger.
“We are not a deep market,” he said.
But Sessom disagreed, arguing money has never been a factor in the site selection process.
“This is a zero-sum game on money,” she said. “I think the public needs to know we’re doing everything we can to find a site.”
Airport officials will likely receive the final comparative reports for the remaining military sites late next week. The strongest contenders include air stations at Miramar East, Camp Pendleton and North Island.
Ahead of those comprehensive studies, Capt. Mike Allen, chief of staff for Navy Region Southwest, read a statement to the board on behalf of a coalition of representatives for the three sites, saying that the direction of the site selection process was of “grave concern” to the military.
He went on to say that airport officials had failed to convince the military that joint-use of any civilian airport with defense operations could be safe and that the U.S. Department of Defense would remain resolute in its opposition.
Just two civilian sites remain on the short list, one in Campo-Boulevard and the other in Imperial County. Both sites bring price tags teetering toward $15 billion or more, with distances of 68 and 104 miles from downtown, respectively. Lindbergh Field remains as a fallback option.
The airport authority expects Lindbergh Field to reach its capacity as early as 2015, even as it pushes through a $500 million master plan designed to expand capacity on the airport’s current footprint. A new airport may take up to 20 years to build.
The board has cleared their plate on June 5 for a marathon meeting meant to choose a site for the Nov. 7 ballot. Language for the measure must be submitted by Aug. 11.
Board Chairman Joe Craver told a small crowd at a recent town hall meeting in University City that it was too soon to know how the authority would draft the ballot’s language. The law that created the airport authority mandated that a site choice be put to voters this November but left the board plenty of room in how they presented the language. That means the ballot could give voters multiple options or force them to vote on a single site.
The authority’s Strategic Planning Committee meets Monday, May 8, at 10 a.m. in the Wright Brothers Conference Room, third floor, at the Commuter Terminal, 3225 N. Harbor Drive.