Legislators Vow to Put TwinPorts Plan Before Voters

State Sen. Wadie Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) and Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Rancho San Diego), two vocal opponents of the TwinPorts international airport proposal for Otay Mesa, vowed Tuesday to lead a signature drive to put the airport plan on the November ballot.

The only thing that can stop the petition drive, both South Bay politicians said, is for the San Diego City Council to agree to put the issue before voters in June.

A public vote, no matter how the voting constituency is determined, would mean certain doom for the proposal, Peace said, insisting in an interview that most San Diegans are against a South Bay airport.

Deddeh and Peace held a press conference Tuesday to counter the release of a report by the San Diego Assn. of Governments that evaluated 16 alternatives to the proposed TwinPorts binational regional airport that would be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Eleven sites were deemed inadequate for basic airport services. Five met the standards but are in areas where there is strong opposition locally to building a regional airport, the study found.

Peace said he took Sandag’s wording to mean that, the relative merits of other locations aside, the agency was following the line of least political resistance in moving forward with the Otay Mesa proposal. Sandag already has begun preliminary planning for the Otay Mesa site.

Tentative TwinPorts plans call for building a runway and terminal on Otay Mesa next to the border. They would be linked to the nearby Tijuana airport by a taxiway, and airplanes could take off or land in either country. The airport would supplement but not replace San Diego’s Lindbergh Field.

The basic requirements for a new airport are suitable space and terrain for at least one 12,000-foot runway and facilities to handle 25 million passengers a year.