Plan Would Use Lindbergh to Fund New Field : Lindbergh Project Suggested to Fund New Field

A major airport-relocation study released Tuesday concludes that redeveloping Lindbergh Field with hotels, offices, and industries would provide financing for a new airport on Otay Mesa, at Miramar Naval Air Station or east of Miramar.

That is one of the findings of the $385,000 report done by the San Diego Assn. of Governments, which also says that all three alternative airport sites evaluated are “technically superior” to congested Lindbergh Field.

But, as was disclosed last week, the report did not recommend one location over another as the best place for a new airport to handle 40 million passengers by the middle of the next century.

Such a recommendation is at least two months away, as Sandag prepares yet another study for the San Diego City Council on the viability of Brown Field in Otay Mesa as a commercial airport.

In locating sites for public facilities in the county, finding a place for the airport ranks as the most difficult, Sandag Executive Director Kenneth E. Sulzer told reporters at a new conference. He said it will take a “strong local consensus” before any of the three locations is selected.

Both he and Jack Koerper, Sandag’s special-projects director in charge of the study, said each of the three alternative sites--Miramar, East Miramar and Otay Mesa--is encumbered by “an institutional problem.”

In the case of Miramar and East Miramar, it’s the Navy, which has steadfastly said it won’t move its air base to accommodate a commercial airport. Sandag says sharing the base won’t work either because it would overcrowd the skies.

In the case of Otay Mesa, the report says an airport there would require an international agreement with Mexico to use the airspace. And, if San Diego were to share an airport with Mexico, the agreement would have to cover the binational management of the facility.

All three locations are better than Lindbergh because they provide better airspace and less conflict with military aircraft; would have better ground access for airport users; would be quieter for nearby neighborhoods and would help keep the region’s economy strong, according to the report.

The report estimates the cost of building an airport from a low of $1.3 billion for Miramar Naval Air Station to a high of $3.1 billion for East Miramar. An airport on Otay Mesa would cost $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion.

However, Sandag officials said the cost for the two Miramar sites would be higher because they didn’t estimate how much it would cost to buy the Navy property. Navy officials have put the price in the billions.

Based on what he called “conservative estimates,” Koerper said that a redeveloped Lindbergh Field would generate $572 million a year in revenues to the San Diego Unified Port District, which owns the airport. Development of 450 acres at Lindbergh would also provide the city of San Diego with about $12.7 million annually in new tax revenue.