By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     EL CAJON — A town hall event held last week, hosted by The East County Californian and the San Diego Regional Airport Authority, left many East County and Back Country residents still frustrated with lack of clear information about the authority’s planning for a new international airport in San Diego County.
     More than 100 interested San Diego County residents met at the East County Performing Arts Center June 30, to question, among other things, why the authority remains more focused on rural sites than on those better located to most of its users in coastal cities.
     “As years go by, there are fewer and fewer sites available due to development and build-out around those sites,” said airport authority board president Thella Bowens.
     This and long construction time at a new site is why the issue is being addressed now. A new airport could take more than 10 years to complete, at which point Lindbergh Field is forecasted to be beyond capacity.
     “We know our airport issues cannot be solved without the input and feedback from the community,” said Mary Sessom, a member of the airport authority board and mayor of Lemon Grove.
     “Financing the infrastructure itself will not come from any local taxes,” Bowens said. These funds will come largely from the airlines, from airport improvement fees, which are factored into the ticket prices of every patron and from airport revenue bonds, which are awarded based on airport rating, currently A+ at Lindberg Field.
     However, according to Bowens, local taxes would be used for any sort of public transportation system and road upgrades to the new site.
     An example mentioned by various town hall participants was the possible high speed rail to get to a Campo or Borrego site and the upgrading of Highway 94 and other roads in the area. District 52 Congressman Bob Filner has even suggested a mag lev train to run down the middle of I-8.
     “When you announce your choice for a site, will you also provide a cost for building transportation?” asked El Cajon city council member Jillian Hanson-Cox. “I’m talking about a place like Campo that has been a big one discussed with regards to transportation problems.”
     “So far, cost has not been a factor, but we’ll be providing that information as best we can,” Bowens said. “We can’t ask the public to vote on something without knowing what the cost could be.”
     “No matter where we put the new airport, be it right next to Lindberg or out in the desert, there is still going to be a significant cost and impact,” Sessom said.
     One major concern that would factor not only into cost, but also environmental impact is the issue of water in the Back Country.
     “I just have one word; water, water, water,” said Campo resident Jack Driscoll. “Do you want to run an airport on groundwater?”
     Driscoll is also worried about the contamination of all the water in the area as a result of the construction and operation of the airport and the inevitable development of hotels and restaurants for travelers.
     “You’re going to wipe out a whole town, you’re going to wipe out Boulevard,” he added. “That town’s been there for a really long time and you don’t seem to consider that at all.”
     On man from La Mesa also spoke out against a Back Country site comparing the Campo site to others that were removed from the list already due to environmental impact reports.
     “I’m shocked and appalled to see that a major international airport would even be considered out there,” he said. “Wouldn’t the environmental impact be tenfold out there in Campo in that pristine area?”
     The remoteness of the Boulevard site, however, is also one of the factors that make it appealing. “If we were in Point Loma right now, you can bet that the people there would be saying ‘why not put it out there in Campo, because you’d only be effecting a few hundred people and not the tens of thousands here,” Sessom said.
     “We’ve looked through this whole county to find places that might work. We’re not saying it will be Campo. It’s just one of the options,” Sessom said. “Water, weather, transportation, fires; these are all things that are important, but we haven’t reached that stage of analysis yet.”
     Raymond Peters talked about the possibility of a floating airport as an expansion of Lindberg Field. Sessom responded by saying that the authority has seen many presentations about various ways to put the airport on the water, however none were found to be viable options. She did not say what the disqualifying elements were.
     There are many different views when it comes to the future of the San Diego County airport. Many people would like to see an expansion of Lindberg Field, possibly onto MCRD land right adjacent to it, however military installations are not being looked at right now, although they remain on all airport authority maps as one of the nine potential sites.
     “Our board has agreed not to study any military sites until the BRAC process is completely finished,” Bowens said.
     The impact of a new airport site has not gone unnoticed by other San Diego County residents whose back yards have also been put on the list. The City of Coronado has already passed a resolution against a site in that area. The Campo planning group has formed an airport sub-committee to try to better provide information and input between the county and the public.
      The question of a new airport site in San Diego County will be on the 2006 ballot, but what that question will be has not yet been decided, according to authority officials.
     “We are out in the public giving and taking information,” Bowens said. “We want you, the public, to be completely informed when we ask you to go and vote on this.”

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