Sandag Rejects Project in Airport Flight Path

Exercising new authority to halt development near Lindbergh Field for the first time, the San Diego Assn. of Governments has blocked plans for a $12.5-million medical office building in the airport’s approach path.

The regional government agency rejected the proposed Harborview Medical Building at 220 Elm St. Friday, ruling that the project would exceed occupancy limits designed to minimize the number of deaths and injuries in case of an airliner crash.

A decision on a second project that would have exceeded the safety standard, a $58.5-million, eight-story, mixed-use development known as Hay Plaza, was postponed to allow developers and Sandag staff members to discuss occupancy calculations.

Normally an advisory agency, Sandag acquired authority over land-use decisions around Lindbergh and five other county airports Jan. 1, under state legislation that gave such regional government agencies oversight for airports without city land-use plans.

The city of San Diego has no land-use plan for the area around Lindbergh, though one should be completed within six months, said Jack Koerper, Sandag’s special projects director. Sandag is also overseeing land-use decisions for the areas around Fallbrook, Ramona, Ocotillo Wells, Agua Caliente and Jacumba airports, Koerper said.

Since Jan. 1, Sandag has approved about 150 land-use proposals for the area near Lindbergh, Koerper said.

Sandag staffers calculate that the 9-story Harborview medical building would hold 2,393 people per acre, far more than the 918 people per acre allowed under one of the safety regulations that Sandag is following, Koerper said.

But James P. O’Neil, attorney for Harborview’s developers, argued that the staffers “deliberately chose not to consider the portion of the site that contains the parking garage,” an interpretation that would have sharply reduced the occupancy per acre statistic, he said.