San Diego’s Airport Authority is trying to get a master plan for Lindbergh Field off the ground, after last year’s initiative to move the airport to Miramar crashed and burned. But the authority is having trouble coordinating its plans with other agencies and communities that will have to deal with the impact of an expanded airport in the middle of the city. KPBS reporter Alison St John attended Thursday’s Airport Authority board meeting.
If you think finding a common vision for San Diego’s bayfront has been difficult, try putting together a common vision for how to expand Lindbergh Field. And expanding the airport in a way that will work is critical for the region’s economic future.
Airport Authority chair Alan Bersin led yesterday’s board meeting
Bersin : We’re talking about a master plan and a potential investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The airport handles 17 million travelers a year now, but will have to handle a projected 30 million by the year 2025.
Predictably, residents of Point Loma, which is in the flight path, are resistant to the whole idea of making Lindbergh the solution to San Diego’s aviation needs.
Lance Murphy says the airport simply can’t be the long-term answer.
Murphy : It’s the wrong place. You need to clarify for the voters that they rejected Miramar -- they didn’t say you’ve got to stay at Lindbergh.
Board member Jim Panknin, who represents east county, agreed that the current master plan is a band-aid fix that’ll last for the next 10 to 15 years. And he said the Authority will have to work hard to get people like Murphy to sign on to the fix.
Panknin : We’re going to need his support, we’re going to need the support of the entire community in order to build something that’s actually going to work and be feasible for this airport.
The big question is how to avoid gridlock on Harbor Drive within a few years. Transit agencies are grappling with the whole issue of how to transport millions more people to the expanded airport.
Board member and San Diego city councilman Tony Young serves on the Metropolitan Transit Board. Young says MTDB is already frustrated with the unilateral way the Airport Authority is moving ahead.
Young : Presentations just saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do’ is really the wrong way to go.
The San Diego Association of Governments , or SANDAG, which is responsible for long term regional planning, has also found itself at odds with the Airport Master Plan. The first phase of the Plan will add 10 new gates at Terminal 2. There’s also a proposal to build a multi-million-dollar parking structure to accommodate the cars bringing people to those terminals.
But Airport Authority board member Jim Desmond acknowledges there are no coherent plans to widen Harbor Drive.
Desmond : We’ve got to get out and start talking to folks. We’re a single function entity, we have the airport, and we put in10 gates, and all the lights go off at SANDAG and say ‘well what are you going to do about Harbor Drive.’
There has been much discussion of a new Transit Center on the north side of the airport which would connect with Interstate 5 and the rail lines. It is in the Embarcadero Visionary Plan released by Steve Peace and Supervisor Ron Roberts. But it is not part of the first phase of the Airport’s master plan.
And even if it is part of the second phase, it is unclear if the transit center would be on airport land or not, and who would be responsible for building it.
Airport Board member Bob Watkins expressed some impatience, after Chairman Alan Bersin talked about more open dialogue.
Bersin : To stimulate the discussion and to make clear that this is our best thinking to date, it’s not our final thinking in any sense of the word.
Watkins : I’m just reminded though how fast global warming is melting the ice caps and how quickly that is happening, and how slowly this is happening and in all due respect to our staff and doing all this great work, but we’ve got to get on to doing something because I’d like to be able to use some of these facilities within my lifetime.
The Airport Authority has a public outreach plan. The plan includes dialogues with business leaders next month and dialogues with citizens early next year. In the meantime, the authority has a timeline to start constructing the 10 new gates in January of 2009.
Alison St John, KPBS News.
