Battle Against Building in Flight Path Is Renewed

An appeal to the Federal Aviation Administration over its refusal to declare the Laurel Travel Center a hazard to aircraft landing at Lindbergh Field is being sought by some members of the San Diego City Council and the San Diego Unified Port District.

Councilman Ron Roberts also called for an independent assessment of the city’s authority to regulate the height of buildings near the airport and a review of zoning regulations that still are providing inadequate advance notice of builders’ plans to put up structures near Lindbergh.

Port Commissioners Louis Wolfsheimer and William Rick, who met with Roberts on Friday to develop a strategy to remedy what airline pilots have called “an accident waiting to happen,” will arrange for a study to determine how much of the six-story Travel Center should be torn down.

Conflict Escalating

The actions will escalate an already tense conflict involving local politicians, the FAA, airline pilots and Samuel Kahn, president of Kent Holdings Corp., which owns the building, situated just 710 feet from Lindbergh’s only runway.

“I don’t know if the whole building has to be razed,” Wolfsheimer said. “But certainly the conflict with the airplanes has to be taken care of, whether it’s one floor, two floors or three floors.”

“A few years ago, if you had asked me, I would have said that the city is able to rely on the FAA to make this decision because they have everyone’s safety first and foremost in their minds,” Roberts added. “I guess I’m a little more cynical now.”

Kahn was not available for comment Friday but said last week: “It’s amazing. Even after a third review, the city of San Diego and/or the Port District are still concerned about the building.”

Roberts, who has arranged a meeting with Kahn for next week, defended him, saying that “he followed all the rules. Somehow, the rules let us down.”

The FAA has refused to declare the building a hazard despite claims by the Air Line Pilots Assn. in a Jan. 6 warning that the landing gear of a 747 aircraft would not clear the parking garage if it were descending into Lindbergh at the minimally approved angle. Under the same conditions, an L-1011 aircraft would clear the building by 1.8 feet and a DC-10 would have 3.8 feet of clearance, the pilots said.

Despite the complaints, the FAA decided that the building is not a hazard but merely an “obstruction.” But the air-safety agency agreed to install a more sophisticated landing system to guide descents into Lindbergh. The system is to begin operating in October, Roberts said.

When local congressmen, pilots and the media continued criticism of the decision, the FAA in June agreed to review the case again. Its decision was the same.

Roberts, whose council district includes the airport, said he has received unsolicited information from an attorney who believes there are grounds for an appeal.

Because the city must appeal to the FAA by Aug. 21, Roberts is asking for emergency consideration of the appeal at the council’s Aug. 9 meeting, since the council will recess then for the month.

For the same reason, Wolfsheimer said he may have to request an emergency meeting of the Port District.

Roberts said he also has new information on the city’s power to limit building heights near the airport and wants an outside expert to review it. City attorneys have consistently advised the Planning Commission, on which Roberts served from 1982 to 1987, that the city must defer to state law on the subject.

City attorneys “have taken a position of hands-off. They might be right. But, since we have some strong evidence that we might be able to regulate heights, I would like to bring in a consulting attorney,” Roberts said.

Perhaps more importantly, Roberts said, zoning regulations requiring the City Council and Port District to be notified when a builder seeks an FAA permit do not appear to be working. In recent weeks, applications for 13- and 12-story buildings on different corners at 5th Avenue and Laurel Street have taken port officials by surprise, a Roberts aide said.

Roberts also noted that neither the FAA nor the city has the authority to stop a building if the underlying zoning permits it. Even if the FAA declares a building a hazard, it cannot halt construction. Nor can the city accomplish that if the zoning allows construction, he said.

The California Department of Transportation is empowered to review any building declared a hazard and must issue a special permit to allow its construction.