Transportation: Effect of
Noise Impacts Debateds
Advocates and opponents of the San Diego Air Commerce Center can agree on at least one thing , location is everything.
Advocates of a plan to turn Brown Field into a major air cargo facility met at the airport June 2 to show off its proximity to the maquiladoras at the Mexican border, just a mile and a half away, and the large amount of land available for development around the airport.
But opponents of Brown Field also met in a telling location June 2 , at a South Bay medical clinic they said would be directly underneath the flight path for planes coming in to land.
Both supporters and opponents of the Brown Field air cargo facility are gearing up for the San Diego City Council vote on the matter in August. The Planning Commission voted 3-1 against the proposal in an advisory vote May 25.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, announced his support for the air cargo facility in sight of planes taking off and landing on the runway. He said Brown Field has the potential to create 12,000 new jobs and provide $1 billion in annual economic benefit. It also will be built entirely by private money, he said.
Reduces Pressures On Lindbergh
An air cargo facility would also help keep Lindbergh Field viable as a passenger facility well into the 21st century, reducing pressure to take the Miramar military air field away from the Marine Corps and ensuring their continued presence in San Diego, Hunter said.
At the same time, he said a viable air cargo center in San Diego would help divert truck traffic from heading north to be flown out of airports in Los Angeles and Ontario, taking a load off San Diego freeways and reducing congestion.
Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Escondido, who was not able to attend but joined the discussion by teleconference, also voiced his support.
The air cargo facility is one of several key transportation projects needed to make San Diego a world-class city, along with dredging San Diego Bay and building a second runway for Lindbergh Field, he said.
H.R. Otis, past president and board member of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce, also supported the project. No other project in the entire region would produce as many jobs or be as much of an economic boon than the airport, he said.
Convenience For Factories
The maquiladoras on the other side of the border will need an air cargo facility, as well, Otis said. If a plant making televisions runs out of picture tubes, the manufacturer can fly in a new supply on a moment’s notice, he said.
Otis supports it on a personal level, as well. As president and chief executive officer of San Diego-based RPM Material Handling Co., he believes that such a facility would lead to a boom in warehouses, meaning forklift sales and repairs for his business, he said.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, meanwhile, stood with opponents of the proposal at the Kaiser Permanente Otay Mesa Outpatient Medical Center. He said the air cargo facility would interrupt surgery at the clinic and disrupt the education of 15,000 students at area schools, he said.
Filner said there are too many noise and safety problems associated with the project. Each of the school districts surrounding the airport, along with the county and the cities of Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and Coronado all have questions about the project that have not been answered, he said.
Other officials also brought up their concerns. Chula Vista Mayor Shirley Horton said the council was not satisfied with the environmental report filed by airport proponents, so the city hired independent analysts to examine the data.
