Public Officials to Take Break Before Renewing Airport Solution Hunt

Elected officials from throughout the county will wait until March before taking the next step toward finding a long-range solution to San Diego’s airport problem, it was decided Friday.

In the meantime, the public will have a chance to comment on the results of a new $385,000 study that says three sites in the region are better for a new airport than an overburdened Lindbergh Field.

The delay will also give the San Diego Assn. of Governments time to finish a 60-day review of using Brown Field as a commercial airport, either by itself or in combined use with Lindbergh.

In making the decision to wait until March, the Sandag board of directors said it wanted to avoid confusion by having enough time for all the studies to be completed and for the information to be made available.

The new report, released earlier this week, concludes that Miramar Naval Air Station, property east of the air base and a site in Otay Mesa are all technically superior to Lindbergh and capable of handling the region’s future commercial airline needs, estimated at 40 million passengers a year by the middle of the next century.

However, all three sites have “institutional problems,” ranging from the Navy’s opposition to leaving Miramar to negotiating an international agreement with Mexico for the use of airspace at Otay Mesa.

One Otay Mesa option involves building a binational airport with Mexico, an alternative some contend is unrealistic because the city of San Diego, which controls land use in the area, has approved the development of residential and industrial complexes in the path of such an airport.

Among those holding a pessimistic view is Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who on Friday questioned San Diego’s representative to Sandag, Councilwoman Judy McCarty, about the binational airport.

McCarty said that, because City Council lifted a building moratorium in the area, “In my opinion . . . the binational concept is dead.”

McCarty also said the problems of moving the Navy off Miramar are “overwhelming,” noting that, although the costs of building a new civilian airport there total several billion dollars, the report doesn’t cover how much it will cost to buy land at Miramar and relocate the Navy. McCarty’s council district includes territory that would be used for an East Miramar airport.

“If we think the Navy is going to turn it over for free” it isn’t going to happen, McCarty said. The Navy has placed the value of its investment at Miramar at $8 billion.

McCarty said more thought should be given to the possibility of expanding Lindbergh and using it more intensively. Such a proposal might include sharing the load with an improved Brown Field.