Panel Delays Vote on Joint Use of Naval Airstrip : Point Mugu: A new report says facility could handle commercial and military flights. But committee says it needs more time to study.

A committee studying the mixing of military and commercial flights at the Point Mugu airstrip refused Wednesday to declare such use feasible even though a new study found that the facility could handle 42,000 jetliner flights a year and still meet federal smog standards.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, who wants to set up jet airline service on the base’s runway, called for immediate support of the concept of both civilian and Navy flights out of Point Mugu.

But the Point Mugu Airfield Joint Use Investigative Committee delayed a vote because the new study was delivered to its members only minutes before the start of the meeting, voting 4 to 3 to table Flynn’s motion.

Camarillo City Councilwoman Charlotte Craven, over whose city the commercial flights would probably be routed, said a vote Wednesday would have been premature.

“I think it would irresponsible of us to take a vote on this before we have even had a chance to read the results of the study,” Craven said.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk agreed, saying she would prefer the committee delay any decisions on the proposed airstrip’s feasibility until later this year, when the Southern California Assn. of Governments delivers a final study on the proposal.

That report is expected to detail the interest of air carrier and air cargo companies in using the facility, and analyze its environmental impact, officials said.

“I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea of this committee voting on the feasibility until we get all the information,” VanderKolk said.

But Flynn, who believes the facility would be a boon for the county, said the committee has enough information to declare the plan feasible.

“We have been meeting for more than a year on this,” Flynn said. “There is ample evidence that this proposal can work. We should not delay in making up our minds. This is one of the decisions that we have been charged to make.”

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The latest SCAG study found that a commercial operation at Point Mugu could handle as many as 2 million passengers annually and still meet tough federal air quality standards.

The problem of where to locate the civilian terminal near the 11,000-foot-long runway without impacting Navy operations or violating safety procedures for military aircraft can be resolved, Tim Merwin, SCAG’s chief aviation analyst, said.

“Basically, our message is that we don’t think there are any fatal flaws in the development of a joint civilian-military use of this facility,” Merwin said. “Over the last several months I believe we have discovered all the major deal-stopping problems that there are to discover.”

Merwin said the new airport could meet 65% to 85% of the county’s demand for air travel through 2010--while satisfying federal smog standards--through the strict use of modern, efficient jets. A projected reduction in vehicle miles driven by county motorists and fewer military flights would also help reduce smog levels.

Camarillo residents’ concerns about safety and noise from flights over the city would be minimized by the use of jetliners with ultra-quiet engines and satellite-operated navigational aides, SCAG officials said.

At the meeting’s end, however, many Camarillo residents said they still oppose the plan.