Miramar Airport Town Hall

[h82rent]

FYI, assemblyman George Plescia is holding a Miramar Airport Town Hall meeting (I just got a flyer in the mail). Details…

Thursday, Aug 17, 6pm
Scripps Ranch High School Auditorium
10410 Treena Street, San Diego

I’ve read this forum for about a year, but haven’t contributed, even though I’m an investor, have owned a home in SD between 2002 and 2004, etc. I feel like I’m a sharp guy and would love to give my thoughts, but I’m really at a loss as to what will happen to SD in the coming years. I have my hopes (I’d like to own a home again), but have a hard time predicting what will happen, and how it will unfold.

I do appreciate everyone’s posts, however… whether I agree with them or not!!

[PerryChase]

I think they should just go ahead and build the airport at Miramar and get it over with. They’ve been talking about it for the last 20 years. We need a new aiport to support a world class economy and Miramar is the only central logical place to put it, in my view.

[Daniel]

Have you heard of Mr. NIMBY? He’s powerful. He doesn’t want no airports. He doesn’t want anything to be built, really. Especially new housing units. Once his own house is up, all other development should stop.

[powayseller]

Miramar makes sense to me – it’s centrally located. But how can it have a chance, with the military opposing it? How will the airport authority get the military to agree?

[PerryChase]

The military would agree with enough political pressure.
San Diego is a “military town” so our politicians tend to defer to the military.
The NIMBY issue is a bigger problem.

[PD]

Miramar serves an important function in our national defense. Anyone who cavalierly states that we should just build a civilian airport at Miramar clearly has no idea how that area is utilized.
Hey, I have an idea! Lets all go HELOC ourselves up to our eyeballs. Wouldn’t it be nice to buy a brand new BMW? They sure drive nice.

[blahblahblah]

Ummm… WHY do we need a new airport? I’m originally from Dallas/Ft. Worth and I can tell you the exact date at which it began to change from a nice place to live into a horrific sprawling nightmare: January 13, 1974, the day D/FW airport opened. The reason I live in San Diego rather than LA is because this place has a good balance between city and town living. With a new larger airport, SD is just going to become more like LA and Orange County. Our airport is fine just the way it is. I travel all the time for business and have never had problems getting in and out. Actually Lindbergh field is a lot easier to get in and out of than the big airports like D/FW or O’Hare. As for having a world-class economy, I’ll leave that to places like Atlanta, D/FW, Chicago, and the LA area, but maybe that’s just me…

[JES]

Why not start by closing down MCRD (400 acres right next to the airport) and moving recruit training to Camp Pendleton. Camp Pendleton is 125,000 acres and contrary to what military officials will tell you I believe there is room to move MCRD there. They already do 1-2 weeks of recruit training at Pendleton – mostly the rifle range, field training and Crucible. A new 500 acre training area would still leave 124,500 acres, and if you include the practically empty Naval Weapons Station Fallbrook there is even more room.

[JES]

By the way, Lindberg field is currently approx 600 acres, so aquiring the 400 acre MCRD property – which for anyone who doesn’t know is located right next to the current runway – would be significant.

[PD]

First of all, deciding how to utilize our military assets is best left to the professionals who understand the big picture. Understanding the big picture also includes planning for the future and anticipating our needs. Camp Pendleton sure seems like a big, empty area when you drive by on the 5 but appearances can be deceiving. Once you take away a base, it is gone forever.
As for increasing the size of the airport, that may not solve the problem. Airspace and air traffic patterns may be the biggest stumbling block. I haven’t studied the issue, however.

[PerryChase]

The problem is that we don’t really know why we need MCRD and Miramar. The military should tell us exactly why and what the alternatives might be. Just saying that this bases are critical to national defense sounds like a cop out to me.

We closed lots of bases in the 1980s and national defense has not suffered.

[JES]

I’m cautious about the Miramar proposal because of the reasons you mentioned, but moving MCRD is less of an issue IMO. The real issue with closing MCRD is whether the current airport could even use that land. I am assuming that because it is directly adjacent to the airport and is almost the size of the current airport, that they could. I’m no expert though.

I am an expert about Camp Pendleton though as I served there for a number of years. For starters, last time I checked over 5000 acres of the base were leased to state beaches and agricultural fields. The agricultural fields alone could probably house numerous MCRDs. Environmental issues also limit alot of what can be done at the base, and current training does take up a large portion of the base. So I would never advocate putting the airport there, but integrating MCRD into the area of the base that already does recruit training, or somewhere else, would make sense to me.

[PD]

True, a lot of bases were closed. El Toro was one of them. Many operations at El Toro were moved to Miramar. Perrychase, prove to me why a civilian airport is more important than national defense and readiness.

[JES]

The military has an obligation to tell us why the bases need to be in their current locations and why alternative locations, or just closing them, are not suitable.

Perry, I’m assuming that you appreciate that we need a place to train recruits and that we need air bases to station aircraft and that you don’t need to be convinced of that.

[PerryChase]

An aiport is good for commerce and the economy. The military uses taxes and resources. America is very big. If it wished, the military could find another base somewhere else to relocate to. I don’t see why Miramar is the only place in this whole country that fits the military’s requirements. If we can move whole bases into Iraq in a matter of weeks, why can’t we move Miramar in a matter of years. Technology allows our military to be effective from just about anywhere.

With Miramar and MCRD it’s just a matter of the military protecting its turf.

[Author]

Posts