Las l\u00edneas de batalla para la Estaci\u00f3n A\u00e9rea del Cuerpo de Marines de Miramar ya se han trazado y ahora se est\u00e1n formando los ej\u00e9rcitos.
With six months to go before county voters have their say on a ballot recommending the joint-use of a new civilian airport at MCAS Miramar, community leaders and organizations on both sides of the proposal are slowly starting to coalesce into political action groups for what is sure to be the battle of the budgets later this summer and fall.
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority’s board voted 7-2 in favor of the Miramar concept on June 5.
La propuesta separa 3,000 acres para un aeropuerto civil de doble pista que operar\u00eda simult\u00e1neamente con el militar, cuyos patrones de vuelo se trasladar\u00edan al sur, expandiendo la zona potencial de accidentes y los contornos de ruido sobre m\u00e1s de las comunidades de Mira Mesa y Tierrasanta.
While military operations would continue to take off to the northwest above Carmel Valley, commercial flights would fly out to the southwest, over much of University City and La Jolla.The proposal would also require the relocation of portions of Highway 163 and a 5-mile section of Interstate 15 east at a cost running into the tens of millions of dollars.
En total, se prev\u00e9 que el concepto cueste alrededor de $6 mil millones.
Both sides agree that the challenge will be to reach voters outside of what are sure to be two very distinct camps, the northern communities surrounding Miramar and the southern neighborhoods near Lindbergh Field.
\u201cEspero que llevemos a cabo una campa\u00f1a vigorosa\u201d, dijo John Kern, consultor de campa\u00f1a de la Coalici\u00f3n para Preservar la Econom\u00eda, un grupo pol\u00edtico que se form\u00f3 en apoyo de la boleta electoral.
But so does T.J. Zane, director of Taxpayers For Responsible Planning, a political organization that has formed to absorb planning groups and community councils opposed to the Miramar proposal.
“First and foremost, it’s a public safety issue,” Zane said. “The major sticking point here is that the military needs it.”
But Zane, who was head of the TransNet campaign for Caltrans and the effort to save the Mt. Soledad cross, agreed that the main challenge for his group will be to reach voters outside of the area immediately affected by Miramar. It means a countywide campaign equipped with the standard arsenal ” polling, direct mailers, e-mails, town hall forums, public speaking and coalition building.Zane said representatives from planning groups in University City, La Jolla, Mira Mesa and Tierrasanta have formed steering and executive committees with his organization in an effort to coordinate fund-raising for the campaign that is expected to kick off after Labor Day.
According to Zane, the campaign is projected to cost $1.5 million to $2 million, with the first fund-raiser scheduled for mid-July.
\u201cAnticipamos que la mayor\u00eda de nuestro dinero provendr\u00e1 de esfuerzos m\u00e1s organizados\u201d, dijo.
Kern, whose group is expected to carry the flag in support of the ballot, would not divulge a timeline for his campaign, saying it was “way too early” to talk about what would happen in the fall and refusing to give specifics on what groups would be involved in the push.
John Chalker, who chairs the Alliance in Support of Airport Progress in the 21st Century (ASAP21), a business association that is tracking the airport issue independent of the airport authority but is associated with the Coalition to Preserve the Economy, said his group has three more community listening forums to complete. Community input from the forums held in each of the county supervisor’s districts will be distributed to ASAP21’s members, but will likely find its way to the coalition and used for the campaign.
A town hall meeting held at the Tierrasanta Lutheran Church on June 15 by joint-use opponents recalled much of the vigor from a similar meeting sponsored by the airport authority last year in Point Loma, when the so-called Concept 6, which called for a second parallel runway through much of Midway and the removal of thousands of businesses and residents, was still on the table ” standing room only and full of opposition.
\u201cNo debemos esperar m\u00e1s. Creo que es hora de actuar\u201d, dijo Eric Germain, presidente del Consejo Comunitario de Tierrasanta, a la audiencia de m\u00e1s de 150 personas. \u201cAs\u00ed es como ganamos esto. Estaremos muy ocupados peleando [la boleta electoral]\u201d.
Residents at the meeting were bolstered by the full support of their state and federal representatives. Staffers for State Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), State Assemblyman George Plescia (R-San Diego) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R- Alpine) sang a common chorus of opposition to the dangers of a joint-use airport.
“We’re working together; Democrats and Republicans, it doesn’t matter,” said Janelle Riella, Plescia’s district director. “We’re all adamantly opposed to it.”
City councilmen Brian Maienschein and Jim Madaffer, who helped organize the event, also voiced their opposition, as did District 1 Councilman Scott Peters through a statement read by his chief of staff
.”Why has Lindbergh Field been ignored? Why won’t we just bite the bullet and make the investment in the airport that we’ve had since 1927?” Madaffer told the audience.
But Lindbergh Field does have a $500 million master plan meant to maximize its capacity through 2017 that includes terminal expansion, a parking structure and reconfiguration of on-field operations.
Cynthia Conger, chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, said after that date, though, a solution must be found elsewhere in light of the county’s projected population increase by well over 1 million people.
\u201cNo han ido a las reuniones. No hay forma de que puedas aumentar esa capacidad para atender a ese tipo de poblaci\u00f3n\u201d, dijo. \u201cNo sucede\u201d.
District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer, whose district includes Lindbergh Field, could not be reached for comment. However, during public comment at the June 5 airport authority meeting, he did not explicitly support the Miramar proposal, saying only that Lindbergh Field was not a viable long-term solution.
La alcaldesa de Lemon Grove, Mary Teresa Sessom, quien forma parte de la junta de la autoridad aeroportuaria y vot\u00f3 en contra de la propuesta de Miramar, dijo a la audiencia en la reuni\u00f3n de Tierrasanta que, independientemente de lo que suceda el 7 de noviembre, se debe tomar una decisi\u00f3n para que el condado pueda planificar.
\u201cEsta regi\u00f3n necesita poder avanzar\u201d, dijo. \u201cHay muchas cosas que no hemos podido planificar porque siempre hemos bailado en torno al tema de '\u00bfQu\u00e9 pasa con un nuevo aeropuerto?'\u201d
Sessom, junto con sus colegas en la autoridad aeroportuaria, no puede hacer campa\u00f1a activamente a favor o en contra de la boleta electoral, pero estuvo disponible para responder preguntas de la audiencia.
The pro- and anti-Miramar campaigns, though, have free rein, with the opposition getting a head start.
“I think if we educate people to the real cost of moving the airport ” especially with the infrastructure ” I don’t think it’s going to be quite as difficult a sale as people are afraid of,” said Linda Colley, chair of the University Community Planning Group.
Pero Tim Golba, presidente de la Asociaci\u00f3n de Planificaci\u00f3n Comunitaria de La Jolla, dijo que esperaba que se aprobara la medida, pero por las razones equivocadas.
“It really is a no-confidence vote in the military,” he said.
Kern no estuvo de acuerdo.
“Anybody who realistically looks at this issue comes to the same conclusion: It’s Miramar,” Kern said. “Is Lindbergh Field adequate right now? Absolutely. Does anybody want to kick the Marines out of Miramar right now? Absolutely not. That’s not even a close call.”
Kern said the Marines, even now, have plans to move assets to Yuma, Ariz., and that the landscape for national defense could change drastically in 20 years ” a central point of the upcoming campaign.
\u201cCreo que es un mensaje bastante simple y una campa\u00f1a bastante simple\u201d, dijo.
But military officials have said repeatedly they have no intention of moving, and that combining civilian operations with fighter jets is unsafe at best. A federal law passed in 1996 also expressly prohibits any form of joint-use of Miramar by civilian aircraft.
Una medida electoral similar en todo el condado que impulsaba el uso civil de Miramar fue aprobada por un 52 por ciento en 1994, pero carec\u00eda de la redacci\u00f3n fuerte de la propuesta actual y fue ignorada por los militares.
Stay Informed
For more on the airport authority and ballot wording, visit www.san.org.
For more information on Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, visit www.savemiramar.org.
For more on ASAP21, visit www.asap21.net.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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