San Diego Grants a Roof to Tower Near Montgomery Field

The city of San Diego will allow a roof to be built on a 180-foot-tall office tower under construction near Montgomery Field, even though the FAA hasn't budged from its position that the building is a hazard to planes landing in bad weather and opposition to the project continues to grow.

The city's Development Services Department authorized the roof work in December, two months after it ordered the developer, Sunroad Enterprises, to stop all work on the top two floors, which had already been framed. Sunroad said the roof was needed to protect the lower floors from rain.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the City Attorney's Office and the state Department of Transportation have been battling with Sunroad since the FAA notified the company last spring that the building could be no more than 160 feet tall.

Last month, the City Attorney's Office filed a lawsuit demanding that the top two floors be removed. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, whose 410,000 members are involved in civil aviation, joined the lawsuit last week. So did a group of local pilots and airport users.

Sunroad says the building is not a hazard and that it won't remove the top floors.

Tom Story, the company's vice president of development, said the City Attorney's Office and the pilots organization are distorting and sensationalizing the issues.

"Sunroad Enterprises is fully committed to public safety, and we would not have built the building if it was a public-safety hazard," Story said in a statement.

Marcela Escobar-Eck, director of the city's Development Services Department, says the roofing compromise doesn't mean the city is ignoring the FAA's concerns.

In a letter to Sunroad, Escobar-Eck warned that the roof is being added at "Sunroad's own risk" because the FAA hasn't removed the hazard designation. The letter also puts Sunroad on notice that the city won't be liable if the company has to remove the roof.

The FAA isn't likely to remove the hazard designation anytime soon, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman in Los Angeles.

"Our position with regard to the project has not changed," he said last week.

`So much at stake'

Chuck McGill, a pilot who flies into Montgomery Field and is a member of the city's Airports Advisory Committee, said he was shocked to learn that Sunroad can begin roofing the project.

"It's incredible the city is allowing this work to go on," he said. "Sunroad pulled a fast one on the city and the FAA and built the building above the legal height, and now the city is saying, `Go ahead and put a roof on it.' "

Bill Dunn, vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said his group joined the city's lawsuit against Sunroad because it fears that pilots, airport users and people who occupy the building will be in danger if the building isn't modified to meet FAA safety standards.

"There is so much at stake here," Dunn said.

Pilots who use the bad-weather landing pattern at Montgomery Field, which accounts for about 10 percent of the landings, must circle within 400 feet of the building. Several pilots say they'll be able to see office workers though the windows once the building opens.

Despite the city's compromise over the roof, tension has been mounting between Sunroad and city officials.

In a strongly worded letter in November, a Sunroad lawyer reminded Jim Waring, head of the city's Land Use and Economic Development Department, that the city had issued the final building permit for the office tower after the FAA had made a preliminary finding that it posed a hazard.

"The city has no basis to stop work at the building. The building poses NO threat to public safety -- and should be allowed to proceed to completion," the letter said.

The letter emphasized that Sunroad will hold the city responsible if the building ultimately has to be altered.