Joint-use at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar got a slap of opposition from the County Board of Supervisors on July 26 and a narrow vote of yes from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce on July 27.
While the Chamber of Commerce remained mum on its vote tally, spokesperson Rachel Laing said that the vote was close.
The supervisors did not officially vote, though three of the four board members firmly expressed opposition to joint use.
Miramar’s role in national security is more important than the need for a new airport, concluded supervisors Dianne Jacob, Bill Horn and Pam Slater-Price, whose district includes La Jolla.
“My position is very simple. To me, national security is a number one priority,” Jacob said. “BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) has looked at this issue, has looked at Miramar, and has said that it’s a vital national security asset.”
Horn felt that Miramar’s proximity to the region makes it an easy target for the county to identify for joint-use.
“As long as they’re there, they’re always going to be an available target,” Horn said.
Supervisor Ron Roberts, who represents University City and Miramar, was the only board member not to flat-out reject joint use at Miramar. San Diego needs a regional airport, and it will involve the Navy in some way or another, according to Roberts, who also expressed doubts about joint use at Miramar.
“We will limp along,” Roberts said. “It will hurt our economy. There’s a direct correlation between major companies and cities that have extended air service.”
Laing emphasized that the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want the Marines to leave, but should the military change its functions in the future by allowing for joint-use, then Miramar is the appropriate site for San Diego’s airport.
According to Diane Bell’s column in the Union Tribune on Saturday, July 29, Qualcomm showed opposition to joint use in a letter to the board, saying that it would hamper plans to expand. Qualcomm did not return phone calls from The Downtown News.
Meanwhile, officers at Miramar shot down suggestions by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority that joint use could work as the two sides battled the issue before the board of supervisors.
Board member William Lynch said changes are occurring at Miramar that could open the possibility of joint use. He pointed to a tentative briefing that outlined plans for moving F-18s and Joint Strike Fighters from Miramar to the Marine base in Yuma, Ariz.
Marine officials rejected the plans as a “pre-decisional, unsigned brief that was placed on the Web site.” The signed brief actually shows that the Joint Strike Fighter will be located at Miramar, said Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert.
And while the airport authority doesn’t believe that taking 3,000 acres from the 23,000-acre base will impact the Marines, they claim that it will drive them from the base.
“The 3,000 acres does not exist without it severely impacting our operational capacity,” said Lt. Col. Rick Pagel. “The only way that a commercial airport would work at Miramar is if the Marines pack up and leave.”
Miramar is key to the interrelationship between the Marine bases in Southern California, where 40 percent of the Marine combat power is located. Miramar sits at the center of the air-to-air and ground-to-ground range of the southern bases, playing an essential role in operations. The Marine Corps is not simply being obstinate, Pagel said.
“BRAC recognized the interrelationship of all of these bases and left these bases relatively untouched, recognizing that the capacity and size of the bases and use of those bases was approximately correct,” Pagel continued.
Congress also recognized the importance of Miramar when it passed a bill prohibiting joint use between Marine and civil activities there in 1996, Pagel said.
But the airport authority doesn’t buy the rhetoric that it’s all or nothing.
In the early 1990s, the Navy adamantly declared that it would never move any of its operations from Miramar, but less than three years later, “Top Gun,” F-14 Tomcats and the E-2 Hawkeyes all left the base, according to Lynch.
Lynch said that the airport authority simply wants to begin a dialogue with the Marine Corps.
“One thing is for sure, with changing leaders and changing world conditions, no military planning 15 years out is set in cement,” Lynch said.
Joint use aside, San Diego needs a new regional airport. And Miramar is not only the best option, it’s the only option, according to Lynch.
Lindbergh Field cannot meet San Diego’s future air transportation needs, and its inadequacy will hurt the economy and frustrate passengers. Though a $500 million master plan to ease traffic flow through Lindbergh over the next decade is in the public review stage, it does not increase the airport’s capacity.
“We will experience higher ticket prices, delayed flights, fewer route choices, overcrowded terminals, lost jobs and billions of dollars of economic loss as businesses, workers, tourists and conventioneers decide to choose other communities with better, more modern airports,” Lynch said.
Irrespective of the results of the November ballot, the issue will not go away, according to Roberts.
“People like [the military and airport authority] will have to fight this because the elected officials don’t want anything to do with it,” Roberts said.
In June, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority chose MCAS Miramar for the future site to replace Lindbergh airport, after assessing six options from moving the airport to Camp Pendleton to Imperial County.
Joint use at Miramar is expected to be one of the cheapest options at $5.9 billion, compared to the Imperial County option at $17.4 billion and Camp Pendleton at $6.3 billion.
The authority’s resolution will go before voters in a ballot on Nov. 7, asking voters if they support moving the airport to Miramar, provided that “military readiness is maintained.”