If you have ever flown in or out of Lindbergh Field (SAN) in San Diego, or tried to book a transcontinental or international flight when you did not have a lot of flexibility as to dates or times, you know how rinky-dink this area’s only major commercial airport is. San Diego is one of the ten largest metro areas in the USA, and one of the fastest growing, yet it has an airport suitable for a medium-sized city, at best. And don’t even think about flying in or out at night. That might wake the city out of its decades-long slumber.
The County of San Diego currently has a commission in the final stages of making proposals for solving this problem and building a first-class international airport, to open 15-20 years from now. The commission faces serious problems, and one in particular: Almost all the useable land in the county, on which an airport could be built, is in the hands of the military. Other, non-military, sites that were considered, but have already been rejected, would have placed an airport in the mountains or rugged foothills that surround the metro area on all sides other than the west. Yet other ridiculous proposals have included remote desert sites with high-speed rail to ferry people from the city to the faraway airport.
It is plain (or plane) to all that the only feasible solutions are to take over or share one of the three major military bases in the county: North Island (near downtown and across the bay from the current airport), Miramar (in the heart of the county’s developed area but containing vast open and relatively level land), or Camp Pendleton (in the last mostly undeveloped stretch between the northern suburbs of San Diego and the southern Orange County suburbs of Los Angeles).
The military is asserting a right to call the shots. Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter says:
While I recognize the San Diego region faces difficult planning and economic decisions regarding future aviation growth, I must tell you that national defense requirements preclude making any portion of any of these installations available for a new or dual-use commercial airport.
The commanding officer at Camp Pendleton, Col. Gregory Goodman, was even more blunt about the county’s search for an airport site:
It won’t be at Naval Air Station North Island, it won’t be at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and it won’t be at Camp Pendleton.
That’s good enough for one member of the commission, Mary Sessom of the eastern suburb of Lemon Grove, who asked, “What part of no don’t we understand?”
However, other members refused to endorse Sessom’s proposal to give up on the military bases.
[Commission Member Anthony] Young flatly refused to bow to a high-ranking official, saying the airport agency does not answer to the military.
“I’m not going to be told what to do or what to think by the Secretary of the Navy or anybody else.”
Indeed, the military does not have a veto here, unless civilian politicians give it one.
Various proposals include a joint-use field on one of the few relatively level parts of Camp Pendleton, near the junction of Interstate 5 and state highway 76; building a new field on open land at Miramar south of the existing navy field; converting part of the existing Miramar fields and building the Marines a new field at Pendleton; or converting North Island.
The North Island plan would entail using the existing Lindbergh terminals and having a rail people-mover in a tube under the bay to gates at North Island. This seems like the best proposal, except that the nighttime restrictions presumably would still apply. The Miramar plan has the advantage of central location, close to freeways and proposed rail-line extensions. The Pendleton plan is rather far from the core metro area, but has the advantage of also serving Orange County (which has a similarly overburdened airport–John Wayne [SNA]). See a Power Point display of the options.
One of these ideas has to fly, or the city won’t. The military simply will have to be reminded that it does not call the shots. Even in sleepy San Diego.
Interesting; there aren’t any current dual-use fields in the US that I can think of (except shared national guard operations, which don’t raise quite the same security concerns), but my recollection is that the US air force shared a field with Frankfurt’s international airport for most of the 20th century (and may still do so) without incident; Templehof in Berlin was also shared if I remember correctly.
I don’t know enough about San Diego to intelligently discuss the options there. It’d be nice to see something tied into the proposed high-speed rail network, though.
Seed planted by Chris Lawrence — 01 March 2006 @ 12:03
Chris, good points about Templehof. I am not sure about Frankfurt, but you may be right.
Unfortunately, the proposal for a remote site with a high-speed rail connection would not be tied into the state high-speed rail proposal, because those lines would not go to the east, where the airport would be. The state rail network also may not be built, because Arnold will soak up all the bonded debt on other projects (unless the legislature insists on including high-speed rail.)
(If the high-speed rail is built, and if the airport is in Imperial County, of course the two lines could be integrated, but they would be separate projects and would tie in only at some point near downtown San Diego. It is not as if the airport could be on a line that goes anywhere else in the state where service would be needed, other than for SD airport traffic.)
Seed planted by MShugart — 01 March 2006 @ 13:22
What about the Pendleton site? My vague recollection is that the statewide HSR route roughly follows I-15 up to Riverside, so I guess it depends on where in Camp Pendleton the airport would be.
That would at least have the advantage of not needing a second rail route and possibly getting the LA-SD leg of the HSR built sooner than was planned before (even before the financing problems). I guess folks in Orange County would still have to drive, though…
Seed planted by Chris Lawrence — 01 March 2006 @ 15:15
Chris, you are right about the High Speed alignment that is currently proposed (though about to be shelved entirely), but the Pendleton site is fifteen or more miles from I-15.
There is no accessible area of the base anywhere near I-15. Other proposals in the past have called for converting the old March AFB (now actually a National Guard base, I think). That would be quite close to the proposed statewide High Speed rail corridor. It is also really, really far from San Diego (even at HSR travel times).
I also rather doubt that the city and county business establishments want to send airport business way up to Riverside County (or, for that matter, out to Imperial County). I think these remote proposals are just not viable for many reasons. The Pendleton proposal is not very remote, being directly off both I-5 and the existing LA-OC-SD rail corridor (not high speed, but in operation, and scheduled for upgrades anyway).
Still, the Pendleton site has less to recommend it than North Island or Miramar. All three of these make more sense than any other proposal that the commission has reviewed. I still think one of these will go forward, despite the bluster of the Navy and Marines.
Seed planted by MShugart — 01 March 2006 @ 15:39
Frankfurt airport I think might still be dual-use – the other side of the runways from the civilian terminal there was a big US military terminal. A lot of eastern European airports I think are either ex or currently shared use. It has proved a bit of a peace dividend there – for instance Riga airport has been able to expand because the military had grabbed so much land and then had to leave after independence.
Seed planted by Lewis Baston — 02 March 2006 @ 08:48
High cost of high-speed rail to potential Imperial airport for San Diego
Among the many proposals for a major modern airpoprt to replace San Diego Lindbergh is a plan to build an airport in the desert of Imperial County, where land is cheap and flat … As a result of the distance and rugged terrain, the only way to make such a plan viable is with a high-speed rail link.
Scion grafted by Fruits and Votes — 19 March 2006 @ 08:56
Military to block SD airport?
The best sites are either Miramar or Pendleton… language that Hunter has slipped into this bill… would keep Miramar, Pendleton and North Island free from civilian intrusion. Civilian intrusion? Last I checked, we had a civilian government and the military served it. However, I will admit that I have not checked in a while.
Scion grafted by Fruits and Votes — 21 May 2006 @ 14:09