Sandag Supports TwinPorts Study : Airport: Regional agency agrees to co-sponsor city of San Diego’s application for federal funds to examine the binational plan.

Boosting plans for a binational airport on Otay Mesa, a regional agency agreed Friday to help the city of San Diego with its request for a federally funded study of the proposal.

The San Diego Assn. of Governments voted 14 to 5 to co-sponsor the city’s application for federal funds to examine City Councilman Ron Roberts’ plan for an airport straddling the U.S.-Mexico border between Otay Mesa and Tijuana.

As a hedge against the possibility that Roberts’ plan might never get off the ground, the Sandag board also agreed to again review other sites, as well as examine new aircraft technologies that could alter the noise, size and other criteria used in the selection.

After the nearly three-hour meeting, a jubilant Roberts said the vote moves his so-called “TwinPorts” proposal--which calls for an international airport on Otay Mesa that would share runways and a control tower with Tijuana’s existing airport--”far, far beyond” previous airport plans that have surfaced in the three-decade debate over the future of Lindbergh Field.

“This is a giant step beyond where we’ve ever been before,” Roberts said. “It’s obvious that a lot of questions remain and need to be answered. But it’s also clear that there’s very strong sentiment for an airport on Otay Mesa, and these studies will begin to answer those questions. I think we’re going to look back at this as a great day for San Diego.”

The prevalent attitude of the Sandag board, however, was neither as enthusiastic as Roberts’ nor as favorably one-sided as Friday’s vote suggests. The board consists of representatives of the county and each of the 18 incorporated cities in it.

South Bay officials, for example, vehemently complained that the airport would increase noise, traffic and pollution in their area. Others questioned whether the daunting array of obstacles confronting the TwinPorts plan--among them, the approval of the U.S. and Mexican governments, identifying funding for the $1.5-billion-plus cost and a host of thorny safety, environmental and logistic questions--could be overcome.

Even board members who voted for the feasibility study expressed skepticism about the binational plan, saying they question its viability. Most, in fact, said they do not yet know enough about the proposal to either support or oppose it.

“I think we should look into it, but not give up the other options,” said Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis, echoing a common sentiment.

After an often acrimonious debate, the board’s action was opposed by the representatives of the county of San Diego and the cities of Chula Vista, National City, San Marcos and Oceanside.

Santee Mayor Jack Doyle, the board’s chairman, went to lengths to emphasize that the vote should not be interpreted as a designation of Otay Mesa as the preferred site for a new airport. The motion approved Friday simply describes Otay Mesa as an area suitable for an airport, adding that the Sandag board will co-sponsor the city of San Diego’s application to the Federal Aviation Administration for funds to develop an airport master plan.

“Any and all options are on the table,” Doyle said. “Otay Mesa is one option to be studied.”

However, San Diego Councilman Bob Filner, one of the major critics of Roberts’ proposal, dismissed Sandag’s plan to review alternatives as a “meaningless” gesture intended to “make a closed process appear to still be open.” As a practical matter, Friday’s vote makes Otay Mesa the region’s preferred site for a new airport in everything but name, Filner argued.

Sandag staff members said Friday that they do not know how much the feasibility studies will cost or how long it will take to complete them--allowing Filner to repeat his complaint that the “process will drag out indefinitely . . . without a yes or no.”

Sandag official Jack Koerper also stressed that federal funding for the studies is not a certainty, noting that San Diego will be competing with other cities for the grant.

One other local governmental agency--the San Diego Unified Port District--has been asked by the San Diego City Council to join the city and Sandag in studying the proposal. The port, which oversees Lindbergh Field’s operations, is expected to review the request later this summer, a port spokesman said Friday.

Under the TwinPorts proposal, a 12,000-foot runway and terminals would be built on the U.S. side of the border, next 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, will 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 relocated to the new border airport, or perhaps to Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa.

The proposal to have a binational airport supplement, not replace, Lindbergh Field has emerged as a major point of contention.

At Friday’s meeting, County Supervisor Brian Bilbray angrily accused the city of San Diego of unilaterally “changing the rules.”

An earlier $300,000-plus airport study that Sandag undertook at the city’s request, Bilbray said, was based on the premise that any new airport would replace Lindbergh--a factor that caused some potential sites to be dismissed as impractical. If San Diego’s long-range airport planning now envisions that Lindbergh Field will remain open, Bilbray said, then the sites rejected earlier should be reevaluated by that new standard.

“The city wants to say, ‘Forget what the rules were in the first three quarters,’ ” Bilbray said. “Now that it’s the fourth quarter, they want to move the goal post.”

Besides clearing the way for the request for FAA funds, Friday’s action also approved the exploration of a county-proposed idea for a regional airport authority and will permit Sandag representatives to participate in the U.S.-Mexican negotiations over the plan.