Mayor to Go to D.C., Mexico on Airport Quest

After nearly three hours of heated debate Monday, the San Diego City Council authorized Mayor Maureen O’Connor to join a delegation to lobby federal officials in Washington and Mexico City to support a proposed airport on land straddling the international border along Otay Mesa.

But the council rejected a request from the San Diego Assn. of Governments, which is sponsoring the delegation, for land-use controls that would preserve land on Otay Mesa until the committee presents its findings.

And, in a 5-2 vote with O’Connor and Councilman Ron Roberts in opposition, the council urged the San Diego Unified Port District to begin upgrading Lindbergh Field so it will be able to meet expected demand through 2010. That vote enraged dozens of residents and business owners at the meeting who for years have been urging government officials to move San Diego’s regional airport.

After Monday’s meeting, John Turner, a lawyer representing homeowners and businesses near Lindbergh said he will “investigate the possibility of a lawsuit due to the lack of due process. . . . They just voted to expand Lindbergh, and nobody was given any notice.”

O’Connor, who strongly opposed expansion of Lindbergh Field, later said the council’s vote to expand the landlocked airport “doesn’t make it right.”

Sandag special projects director Jack Koerper said the council’s failure to preclude development on Otay Mesa while the committee is meeting with federal officials ran counter to the authorization sought by Sandag board members.

Sandag hopes that the proposed international airport will be included in the agenda of a proposed summit meeting that President Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari might hold later this year.

At one point in Monday’s lengthy airport debate, the council seemed ready to designate Lindbergh as the airfield of choice for the foreseeable future, and to abandon the long-running search for a replacement site in the county.

But that proposal, advanced by Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt and supported by council members John Hartley, Bruce Henderson and Bob Filner, fell one vote short of a required five-vote majority. After the meeting, Bernhardt said she would give serious consideration to placing such a motion on a future council agenda.

Koerper described the council’s series of airport-related votes as “sending a mixed message” to San Diegans about the role that Lindbergh will play in San Diego’s future.

Filner, a staunch opponent of the proposed international airport, argued that, for Otay Mesa landowners who have faced a building moratorium for the past 1 1/2 years, the proposed committee really represents “another moratorium.”