Nearby Residents Object to San Diego's Plan to Move Airport to Miramar

July 18, 2006
Concerns have been raised about potential effects on noise, traffic and the environment.

San Diego residents crowded into a room at the Scripps Ranch Library recently to learn more about -- and voice strong opposition to -- a proposal to build a new international airport at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Hosted by the Scripps Ranch Civic Association and the Scripps Ranch Planning Group, the event gave people a chance to discuss the plan with a panel of eight San Diego County Regional Airport Authority representatives for the first time since the agency's board chose Miramar as the preferred site for the project.

Concerns about the proposed airport's potential effects on noise, traffic and the environment in and around Scripps Ranch and nearby Miramar Ranch North quickly dominated the session. The Airport Authority reps carefully tried to address each issue, but many of their answers failed to satisfy the crowd.

When people began questioning where hotels, car rental lots, warehouses and other ancillary services commonly found around airports would go, for instance, they were told those necessities were penciled in between two runways included in an initial design for the project. The reply drew a heavy chorus of disbelieving snorts.

"It's the size of my backyard ---- get real" and "Hotels between runaways? Are you kidding?" were among the comments that rang out. Exasperated, some listeners began skipping the formality of writing out questions to read by moderator Rick Parke and switched to calling out queries angrily.

The audience applauded loudly for more than a minute, though, after San Diego Councilman Brian Maienschein told the panel he strongly opposed the idea of a new airport at Miramar and will fight to keep the project off the base.

The Marine base emerged as the Airport Authority's preferred site for the project after the state-created public agency spent three years studying more than two dozen potential locations for a new airport. Agency officials have said the project is needed because San Diego's existing international airport, Lindbergh Field, will reach its maximum capacity within 10 to 15 years.

Military officials have said they will not give up Miramar because the base is necessary for the country's defense.

Even so, the Airport Authority's board voted in June to put the air station at the top of its list of potential airport sites, saying it is the best place for the project.

The Airport Authority's plan calls for the agency to explore two options: sharing the base with the military or taking it over completely. Voters will be asked to weigh in on the plan in November, when it will appear on the ballot.

At Wednesday's meeting, Airport Authority official Angela Shafer-Payne said the agency's proposal calls for it to buy or lease 3,000 of Miramar's 23,000 acres by 2020. A design created for the project calls for two, 12,000-foot-long runways to be built parallel to each other as part of the civilian airport, she said.

Asked why the agency has zeroed in on Miramar when military officials have said it will not be available, Shafer-Payne said she was the one who proposed the 2020 time frame be included in the airport measure set to go on the ballot.

"We don't know what's going to happen between now and then," she said. "Keep in mind that something were to change, the base could become available."

While the Airport Authority has considered the project's potential effects on the community to the best of their ability so far, she and other agency officials said, detailed answers about how potential problems with noise, traffic and other issues will be addressed will not be known until environmental impact analysis is done.

A panel member's remark that the agency will be required by law to mitigate any impacts on the community sparked grumbling from listeners who wondered aloud how it would be possible to counter every potential problem. The panel got a similar response when members said the base will not be crossed off the list of potential airport sites even if voters nix the idea of the project being carried out at Miramar.

"The purpose of the vote is to give the communities a chance to express their opinion on what they want us to do as far as the airport," panel member Ted Sexton said. "It won't fix the problem (of overcrowding at Lindbergh); that won't go away."

Copyright: North County Times, Escondido, Calif. -- 7/17/2006

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