The weight of the November vote on a site for a new airport seemed to be slowly chipping away at a shortlist of enormously expensive options at a recent planning meeting for Lindbergh Field.
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority heard an overview of Lindbergh Field’s master plan as planners continue to wring the last drops out of its capacity. Everything from another terminal with more gates, to a new parking structure and a reconfiguration of on-field jet operations is included in the $1 billion plan to maximize the current footprint of the airport through 2015.
But board members were less than satisfied with the report’s generalizations, zeroing in on the minutiae of how to accommodate more than 8 million passengers should voters reject a chosen replacement site on the countywide Nov. 7 ballot.
“This airport will eventually reach capacity and if we’re stuck with it, we’ll just have to do the very best we can,” said board member William Lynch.
Doing its best will be a difficult task for the authority. Even if property currently occupied by the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) becomes available after 10 years, it will not provide adequate space for a dual-runway configuration allowing for simultaneous departures and arrivals.
“Any substantial increase in passenger activity is going to require a second runway of some kind,” said Thella Bowens, president\/CEO of the airport.
Should the authority ever acquire MCRD, plans allow for a closed V-shaped dual runway layout, a system that would fall well short of the two separated runways called for in the site selection process.
But under the possibility that voters might reject the proposed replacement site, absorbing MCRD and getting creative with the airport’s surrounding infrastructure might be all the authority can do, some on the board said.
“I think if we’re going to meet the problem square-on, we need to give all the sites, including Lindbergh, the same consideration,” said board member Mary Teresa Sessom.
That would include looking to acquire MCRD, moving some facilities off the current site to free up space, the possibility of a two-deck Harbor Drive and integrating public transit into the airport itself.
A study on what impact use of MCRD land could have on the airport’s master plan will be presented to the board April 24, while a comparative analysis for joint-use airports at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Naval Air Station North Island and Camp Pendleton will be made public early next month.
The authority must submit ballot language for a proposed site to the County Registrar of Voters Aug. 11 in time for the November vote.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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