San Diego County Regional Airport Authority officials kicked off a campaign to solicit public input during a workshop Tuesday at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel at Liberty Station. The Airport Authority is working to complete an update to its land-use compatibility plan — the document governing types of future development around Lindbergh Field. Over the next several months, the Airport Authority will host several workshops and steering committee meetings designed to gather public comment and concerns over noise, airspace protection, flight disturbances, environment and safety. Suhail Khalil, co-chairman of the Peninsula Community Planning Board Airport Committee, was among the participants at the introductory meeting. He said future changes to airport development regulations will directly affect Peninsula residents. “Every property owner in the [airport map] zones is going to be affected,” said Khalil. “And not in a good way.” The updates to the land-use plan adopted by the airport cover four general topics. Technical issues will be addressed, one topic per steering committee meeting. The subjects include: • overflights dealing with potential disturbances and frequency of flights; • airspace protection and airspace safety regulations governed by the Federal Aviation Administration; • noise regulations and mitigation; and • safety regulations governing hazards to the public posed by potential accidents. The first of the steering committee meetings takes place Wednesday, Feb. 23 from 1 to 5 p.m. in the conference room of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, located at 2592 Laning Road. Keith Wilschetz, director of airport planning, said all of the meetings will be held in the open to collect public comments and concerns. “The intent of the [process] is two things: to protect people … and to protect the airport from encroachment from incompatible land use,” Wilschetz said. He said the Airport Authority will seek policy advice from professionals and the general public during the steering committee meetings, and use the forums as an opportunity to answer questions posed by concerned residents like Herb Stern Stern, a 73-year-old retiree and a resident of Point Loma for the last 40 years, said he attended the meeting because he is concerned about transportation around the airport. He said he’s seen different plans come and go over his four decades on the Peninsula. “It seems like we’ve been through this before,” Stern said. “How they’ll make it work is beyond me, [but] the Quieter Home program is a big help.” The Quieter Home program is an ongoing retrofit of some homes that are most affected by noise. The homes are outfitted with noise-dampening windows and other measures designed to reduce the thundering jet noise inside homes. For more information about the program and to learn more about future plans for the San Diego International Airport, visit www.san.org.








