Miramar Air Station's Fate Debated

It's an irreplaceable linchpin of national defense. Or it's a potential escape valve for increasing runway congestion at Lindbergh Field.

What-if musings on the future of the Marine Corps' Miramar Air Station dominated an unconventional debate yesterday between opposing camps in the Proposition A campaign. Voters will decide Nov. 7 whether they want government officials to work toward obtaining part of the base for a future civilian airport.

Campaign leaders Dennis Burks (Yes on A) and Bruce Boland (No on A) queried each other in what was billed as a one-of-a-kind "Lincoln-Douglas" style confrontation at downtown's University Club.

It was a genteel exchange.

Burks wanted Boland to explain how Miramar ought to be used if the military decides to close it in some future base realignment process.

"I'd like the base to be used for whatever the citizens of San Diego County want it to be used for," said Boland, who doesn't see that happening under any reasonable scenario anyway. "That's one of the major problems. We have no consensus in this community at all."

Boland wanted Burks to explain how traffic on Interstate 15 will look in 2030 with 144,000 average daily vehicle trips generated by air travel.

Burks said a lot of the trips to and from Lindbergh Field already use I-15 at some point, and that the airport would be making enough money from the new facility to help pay for necessary freeway improvements.

Boland, a retired Navy rear admiral, used his question time to ask Burks why the authority felt it could operate commercial aircraft next to tactical fighters.

Burks pointed out the joint-use concept developed for the authority by consultants has been dropped. And the Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation warplane that the Marines have said will be deployed at Miramar by 2012 and would make civilian operations impossible, has not yet gotten through its environmental review, he said.

The jet may prove to have "major environmental problems" that would prevent it from being based the middle of a major urban area, Burks said.

While present-day Miramar may not support a civilian airport, "to say there couldn't be a different model in the future is really not realistic," Burks said.

In a question to Boland, Burks said, "The military has changed its mind before about the use of Miramar ... is it possible they could change their mind again?"

Boland said the consolidation of bases that brought Marines to Miramar after the Navy moved out happened "because the citizens of San Diego wanted them here.

"They're now here -- there isn't any other place for them to go," he said.

The Marine Corps has said that no Miramar property is available without hampering military readiness, but supporters say they'd like the chance to at least talk about it should conditions change. A "no" vote would pressure the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to find a way to make Lindbergh Field work indefinitely.

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