Building Ban Extended for TwinPorts Project : Airport: City Council reimposes moratorium on Otay Mesa, where some hope a binational airport will emerge.

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday voted to extend a moratorium on residential development at the proposed TwinPorts airport site, making it at least the fourth time in as many years a moratorium has been placed on Otay Mesa because of an airport.

“If we are to get an American airport on our side of the border in San Diego this is the way to do it,” said San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts, a TwinPorts proponent. “I don’t think there’s another site where this can actually happen.”

Council members voted, 5 to 3, to extend the moratorium another year. But the moratorium could be canceled at any point if the council concludes TwinPorts is no longer a viable concept.

The council also agreed to request another grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to complete the proposed airport’s $600,000 master plan study.

Conducted by P&D; Technologies, results from the first phase of the study released last week suggest TwinPorts could generate $2.5 billion in annual revenues for the region and create more than 58,000 jobs by the year 2040.

For Mexico, the binational airport holds the promise of 10,000 new jobs by the year 2020, said Felipe Ochoa Rosso, a study consultant.

The council also decided to send a delegation consisting of the mayor and council members John Hartley and Valerie Stallings to meet with Mexican authorities and officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to determine their level of commitment to the TwinPorts concept.

The proposed TwinPorts would straddle the U.S.-Mexico Border on a 3,000-acre site on Otay Mesa. The airport would be jointly developed by the two countries, which would share runways, taxiways and a control tower, but would have separate passenger terminals and customs facilities.

Tuesday’s decision, which was opposed by council members Bob Filner, John Hartley and Abbie Wolfsheimer, was made following more than an hour of comment by individual council members, who were both complimentary and critical of TwinPorts.

“I think it’s about time we had the courage to say this is a fantasy, and that it’s not going to happen,” Filner said. “We are not going in a right direction for an airport, and we are costing thousands and thousands of people in the South Bay the possibility of job opportunities.”

Filner said in an earlier interview that the recent TwinPorts study fails to cite the 83,000 high-paying jobs and $21 billion in revenues generated from industrial development planned for Otay Mesa that would be lost if TwinPorts is built.

“I think we should stop trying to fool the public. . . . This is not going to fly,” Hartley said. “They (Mexican officials) don’t want our airport, they want their airport. . .I think they’ve made that very plain.”

Hartley’s sentiments were echoed by San Diego County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, a TwinPorts foe.

“What they’ve (Mexican officials) said is what you’re going to do on your side of the border is fine, but don’t expect us to tear up one bit of the facility we’re building,” Bilbray said.

Bilbray was referring to a point of contention raised at Monday’s council meeting over the feasibility of aligning the runways between the two countries and plans recently unveiled by Mexico to expand Rodriguez International Airport in Tijuana, plans that might conflict with TwinPorts development.

“They’ve all sent very clear signals, the trouble is that you have political egos on this side of the border that refuse to listen to plain language,” Bilbray said.

But some view TwinPorts as the city’s last site for a new airport.

“I remain very skeptical about the whole thing, but I don’t have another option, and that’s the bottom line for me,” said Stallings, who voted to extend the moratorium.

Still others others believe a binational airport on Otay Mesa holds the potential to act as the catalyst needed to stimulate economic growth on Otay Mesa.

“I think the airport is an answer to our transportation needs to drive our economy into the age of the Pacific Rim,” said Stephen Porter, president of Porter International, a customs broker and international freight forwarding company situated on Otay Mesa. “I can understand how opponents see moratorium after moratorium on this thing, but this is the closest we have every come to making a hard and fast decision.”

For developers whose land lies within the boundaries of the moratorium, Tuesday’s vote came as yet another blow to their plans.

“It’s been a five-year moratorium one year at a time, this is what we’ve been going through,” said Bruce Tabb, president of Environmental Development, a real estate development firm that owns 200 acres in the moratorium area. “It’s easy to just keep extending this thing on the hope that someday everyone will come to a consensus on this, but in the meantime there is a significant loss taking place.”