Officials to Discuss Limit on Construction Near Airport

A movement to draft a city ordinance to prevent construction that could create safety hazards at Lindbergh Field begins today with a meeting of representatives of the city, Federal Aviation Administration, San Diego Unified Port District and San Diego Assn. of Governments.

FAA officials have warned that the proliferation of building near the airport could eventually force a reduction in the number of flights allowed at Lindbergh Field. Last week, the city Planning Commission recommended a moratorium on construction in the airport area until an ordinance is drafted and approved by the City Council.

Although the port owns the airport land and the FAA regulates air traffic, only the city has the power to restrict construction that could create the safety hazards. The issue, which was the subject of a workshop at the port commission Tuesday, is complicated by Assistant City Atty. Fred Conrad’s opinion that such an ordinance might precipitate numerous lawsuits by landowners against the city.

Conrad recommended instead that the city condemn land where construction could affect air safety. In 1970, the port district spent $625,000 to condemn three apartment buildings that posed hazards to air traffic. Port and city officials have said that following Conrad’s condemnation suggestion could pose an astronomical cost to the city today.

Port Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer said he found it “incredible that the city can regulate (heights of buildings) for aesthetic reasons at the beach (where a 30-foot limit is in effect) but cannot pass a law preventing a potential danger to people.”

Elly Stanson of the FAA Western Pacific Regional Office in Los Angeles said, “Hopefully, the meeting we have set up will start a process of identifying the problem and some kind of a potential solution.

“We’re hoping for cooperation from the city. There already are a lot of obstructions in San Diego. The FAA cannot regulate construction, but it can alter procedures at the airport, including the closing of runways, if the need arises.”

Stanson said the rules regulating airports are uniform throughout the nation. “Unfortunately, those standards do not fit Lindbergh Field well, so we try to look at the impacts buildings would have on runways on a case-by-case basis.”