Council Backs Temporary Halt to Growth Near Brown Field

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday gave conceptual approval to a 90-day moratorium on construction at both ends of Brown Field in Otay Mesa in order to preserve it as a potential commercial airport site.

In voting for the moratorium, however, the council exempted several parcels zoned for industrial parks that are close to breaking ground and restricted their building heights to 30 feet.

A moratorium including the exemptions will be drafted and voted on by the council next week.

The roughly 3,400 acres covered by the building freeze is land the city would need if it decides to expand Brown Field to help relieve the load at Lindbergh Field. Two parallel, southwest-to-northwest runways are envisioned.

Councilman Ron Roberts, who says an expansion of Brown Field would be impossible if land around the airport was developed, initiated the moratorium and said Tuesday it should last until the San Diego Assn. of Governments completes a review of a consultant’s report which says that Brown Field could accommodate major airline traffic.

Several industrial developers, whose projects have received substantial city approvals but are short of having building permits, appealed to the City Council on Tuesday, saying a moratorium would hurt them.

Roberts said the intent of the moratorium is to “save the site and impact as few people as possible.”

The moratorium would be the second around Brown Field in the past two years. Under pressure from builders, the council last November lifted a year-old moratorium that encompassed a much larger area and included residential, commercial and industrial projects.