El Toro Could Relieve LAX and Lindbergh

A new regional study says that a commercial airport proposed for the El Toro Marine base may be the best way to relieve the excess passenger demand at airports in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

The study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments is the first to seriously consider the potential of the San Diego air passenger market, said Michael Armstrong, a senior aviation planner for the association.

“For all of Southern California, from San Luis Obispo to the Mexican border, El Toro has more potential than any other proposed airport site,” Armstrong said Monday. ‘Right now, it’s the only realistic alternative.”

Demand is heavy at Lindbergh Field in San Diego, where overseas flights are not allowed and those passengers must be flown or bused to Los Angeles International Airport, Armstrong said. LAX is already being affected by the influx of commuter flights from San Diego and Orange counties.

“If you look south of LAX, you see nothing but big airport capacity problems,” Armstrong said.

However, opponents of converting El Toro to a commercial airport once the military departs suggested the study is another attempt to pump up what they consider an impractical and unacceptable airport alternative.

“I’m not sure this isn’t more of the same folks simply playing with our minds,” said Bill Kogerman of Lake Forest, a longtime airport opponent. “El Toro remains, geographically, a terrible place for an international airport.”

The study mainly focused on the potential of the March Air Force Base in Riverside, which is slated in 1997 to become an airport for military and civilian cargo shipments. Because of San Diego’s relative proximity to March, the study for the first time took into account the potential growth of demand among San Diego area passengers.

Armstrong said the number of passengers at Lindbergh Field is expected to double to 28 million per year in the next 10 years. Lindbergh is severely limited by its size, approximately the same as John Wayne Airport, its geographical setting and its one runway, Armstrong said.

“If you look at the alternatives for San Diego alone, you have to look at El Toro,” Armstrong said. “There is a train link there already and the other potential airport site, Miramar, is going to remain a military base.”

Kogerman also said the study neglects the problems inherent in the El Toro site.

“Each time anyone asks whether El Toro would be an ideal location, the answer keeps coming out absolutely not,” Kogerman said. “It doesn’t make any sense from an environmental or a traffic point of view. To try to use El Toro, with its existing facilities, for international travel on the Pacific Rim is absolutely a waste of time.”

The 4,700-acre El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is scheduled to be converted to civilian use by 1999. The county is preparing an environmental import report on the proposed airport. Ultimately, county supervisors and the Department of Defense will determine whether the plan is approved.

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Rene Lynch.