Sandag, Port Asked to Study TwinPorts, Despite South Bay Outcry

In a shaky endorsement of a proposed binational airport straddling Otay Mesa and Tijuana, the San Diego City Council on Monday proceeded with plans for the airport in the face of strong South Bay opposition and growing skepticism among council members themselves.

By a series of votes that underlined the council’s deep divisions on the two-decade debate over the future of Lindbergh Field, the council moved incrementally forward on Councilman Ron Roberts’ so-called “TwinPorts” proposal to build an international airport on Otay Mesa that would share runways and a control tower with Tijuana’s existing airport.

Reinforcing its May decision specifying the TwinPorts plan as the city’s preferred long-range airport plan, the council voted, 6 to 3, to officially request that the San Diego Assn. of Governments and the San Diego Unified Port District join the city in studying that proposal. That vote, the first step toward seeking federal funds for feasibility studies, came with Councilman Bob Filner and Councilwomen Abbe Wolfsheimer and Judy McCarty in opposition.

If Sandag, the regional governmental agency with authority over the airport plan, concurs in that request later this month, the city will be able to begin discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration on the TwinPorts plan.

With many arguing that the airport search should not be limited to a single problematical option, the council also asked Sandag to study alternatives to the TwinPorts plan, such as a desert “wayport” linked to San Diego and other Southwestern cities via a high-speed monorail.

And, hoping to close one major chapter in the long-running airport debate, the council also voted to abandon, once and for all, proposals to construct a civilian airport at Miramar Naval Air Station. Though some city officials view Miramar as the most logical alternative to Otay Mesa, others argue that the Navy’s unwavering contention that civilian use of the base is inconsistent with its military role makes further review of that possibility fruitless.

“Miramar’s been put to bed,” Wolfsheimer said. Saying that the Persian Gulf War demonstrates the base’s strategic value, she added: “You might even have had Saddam Hussein sitting in the mayor’s chair if you didn’t have Miramar in the war.”

Much of Monday’s 3 1/2-hour debate was devoted to a succession of showdowns between Roberts and Filner, whose districts include Lindbergh Field and Otay Mesa, respectively.

Caustically dismissing Roberts’ TwinPorts plan as “LAX South,” Filner argued that the proposal would “severely trample on the South Bay’s economy” by undermining ambitious plans for industrial and residential development.

“Once again, the South Bay is getting dumped on,” Filner said, noting that the region often has been picked for undesirable public facilities such as prisons and sewage plants. “The people of the South Bay won’t tolerate it. And, as their City Council member, I won’t tolerate it.”

Roberts, who argues that the TwinPorts plan could bring millions of visitors and billions of dollars here annually by the turn of the century, was able to rebuff each of Filner’s attempts to scuttle his proposal.

However, even some of the council members who supported Roberts’ positions on those key test votes expressed considerable skepticism about the plan, saying that they are willing to study it, even though they question its viability. As a result, Roberts could have difficulty preserving his fragile council majority, which dipped to a 5-4 on several votes Monday, through the myriad future legislative hurdles facing the TwinPorts proposal.

Under the plan, a 12,000-foot runway and terminals would be built on the U.S. side of the border, adjacent to Tijuana’s international airport. Linked by a 4,300-foot taxiway connecting the two parallel runways, the dual airports would operate separate arrival and departure terminals, customs checkpoints, immigration, agriculture and other inspection facilities. Planes could land or take off from either runway and would taxi to the appropriate terminal after landing.

If TwinPorts becomes a reality, Lindbergh Field, which is nearing capacity because of its single runway and limited traffic access, would remain open, operating primarily as a short-haul and commuter service airport. Brown Field, a small city-owned airport on Otay Mesa, would be closed and its operations shifted to the new border airport, or perhaps to Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa.

Although formidable obstacles remain--namely, the approval of the U.S. and Mexican governments, identifying funding for the estimated $1.5-billion-plus cost, and a host of thorny safety, environmental and logistical questions--Roberts’ plan already has gathered the kind of momentum that eluded its predecessors in a debate that can be traced back to the propeller-plane era.

Nevertheless, the plan faces vociferous opposition among South Bay residents, many of whom fear that a major international airport would do more to increase noise, traffic and pollution in their area than it would to spawn the development predicted by its supporters.

“It does not appear to me . . . that this project is indeed in the interest of our community’s future,” Chula Vista Mayor Tim Nader told the council.

Other South Bay community leaders warned that they would sue the city if necessary to block the TwinPorts plan.

As he has since Roberts’ plan emerged this spring, Filner hammered away at supporters’ inability to specify either a cost or timetable for the forthcoming feasibility studies. He also dismissed the request that Sandag study alternatives to the TwinPorts plan as a “meaningless” gesture intended to placate opponents, predicting that other options will receive, at best, a perfunctory review.

“Sandag will sandbag it,” Filner said. “They’ve not been objective. Their mind is already made up.”

Most council members, however, are positioned between Roberts’ staunch advocacy and Filner’s strident opposition to the TwinPorts plan. Their attitude was perhaps best captured by Councilman John Hartley, who said it is too early to know whether the TwinPorts idea will solve the city’s airport problem or simply become another in a long list of failed proposals

“This proposal’s got a lot of hoops to jump through,” Hartley said. “But we have a chance here to solve a regional problem. So I think we ought to take that chance.”