Hat tip to AL for sending this along, from the nctimes.com:
Plans for a $767,000 runway study at McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad were cleared for takeoff Wednesday morning, starting a 15-month process to determine whether a runway extension can be built on top of an old city dump.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors OK’d funding for the study after a short discussion at their downtown San Diego meeting. The county owns the airport.
None of the county’s general fund (used for everything from potholes to patrol cars) will be tapped for the study. Instead, revenue from leases on county airport property will pay for it, officials said.
The desire for a longer runway has gained speed in recent years as McClellan-Palomar has transformed into a busy hub for private and corporate planes. That growth has been followed by several plane crashes in which pilots overshot the airport’s runway.
Airport officials say a runway extension would boost safety and reduce airplane noise for nearby residents. Early plans call for adding 1,100 feet to the 4,897-foot runway.
With a longer runway, planes would be higher off the ground once they leave the airport, reducing the noise heard in the neighborhoods below, Peter Drinkwater, the county’s airports director, said last week.
Supervisor Bill Horn, who represents Carlsbad, said in a statement after the meeting that a longer runway would bolster safety and create “additional opportunities for commuters and corporate jet-setters.”
“This is all about creating jobs and increasing business in North County,” Horn said. “It is time we find out what the true potential of the Palomar Airport is.”
Regarding the study’s hefty price tag, Supervisor Pam Slater-Price said by phone after the meeting: “I think it’s a complicated project and it has to be done right. We have to allocate the appropriate amount.”
She expressed concern about building on top of a landfill, noting several underground fires have burned inside the covered dump in the past. She said she was confident, however, that the concerns would be addressed in the study.
Slater-Price added that Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall spoke in favor of the study. No one spoke in opposition, she said.
Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., a national transportation consulting firm, will conduct the study, according to the county.
If at any point during the study an extension is determined not feasible, the study can be terminated with the county retaining all remaining funds, officials said.
Airport officials are lying through their teeth. The proposed expansion has nothing to do with protecting local residents from noise and crashes. It has everything to do with increasing the size/weight and type of aircraft that can use the facility. A longer runway means heavier aircraft and bigger jets can land there. Noise and pollution will increase and safety will decrease.
Airport promoters always say business and jobs in the area will grow if you expand a general aviation airport. You might sell more fuel and rent more shelters, hangers and tiedowns on the airport property, but no more jobs, except short term construction jobs, will be created.
The push to expand these airports usually has more to do with relieving congestion at the main commercial airport. Those darn general aviation guys are always interfering with growing commercial traffic (and landing fees). I can see that being a big issue at San Diego, which probably would be difficult to expand.
As for not taking revenues from the general fund, if I paid taxes in San Diego County, I would want to know where any excess of airport revenues over airport expenses is going, if not to the general fund. That is, if the airport isn’t already losing money…
The previous article said the reason for expansion was so Bill Gates and Irwin Jacobs could put more fuel in their jets.
The new property tax assessments are online — and they are up! My assessment is up about 1% from last year while Zillow shows I am down 3% or 4%.
http://www.sdtreastax.com/pay.html
Or so Larry Ellison could land his jet there.
Larry was constantly battling San Jose “International” airport about taking off and landing outside of airport operating hours. Larry liked to come home late at night, but the airport had a longstanding agreement with the surrounding neighborhoods to limit the noise. I have forgotten what finally happened, but I’m pretty sure Larry got some concessions.
Santa Clara County has been trying to expand the small general aviation airport in the more rural South County for 20 years or longer. The trouble is, they could never get the enthusiastic support of the aviation community. The corporate and private jet owners had no interest in moving 50 miles south of Palo Alto.
Interest in expanding the airport seems to be reviving, however. The Fry family (Fry’s Electronics) has been buying up land in the airport vicinity. Land purchases by well connected, savvy investors are usually a sign something is planned in the foreseeable future.
It appears the extension would lead to a 6,000 ft runway.
At 330 ft above sea-level, such an airport would be able to support flights using the most popular narrowbody commercial aircraft (A320 and 737 family aircraft) to fly considerable distances. Even to the east coast, potentially.
I used to be an executive for a mainline airline based in the west, and if Palomar had a 6,000 ft runway we’d have been all over it. Awesome location. Further, there’s no way to prevent commercial service if FAA money has been taken — and Palomar already has commercial certification (it’s a “Part 139” airport, in FAA parlance).
SoCal is going to need more runway space in another 10-20 years — just about all of the existing airports are capacity capped (not necessarily at capacity, but within sight — LAX, SAN, SNA, BUR, LGB…). So I’m in favor of more runway capacity, but I’m very surprised to see that Carlsbad is going down this road. Given the typical attitude of SoCal residents, I’d have expected pitchforks and barrels of tar to be in evidence already for the Board of Supervisors even discussing this notion.
(not that anyone necessarily cares, but in my view, San Diego should be building a new large airport to the east of Miramar. There’s no good reason the Marines need to be at Miramar, they could just as easily be stationed in, say, the existing Navy air base in Imperial Valley. If you put a new airport to the east of Miramar and left Miramar as a combination park/noise protection zone, that would enable the construction of a large airport to the east where the noise wouldn’t affect many people. Not saying that the construction — on generally hilly ground — would be simple, however)
Good luck with the proposed airport “east of Miramar”…the people in Scripps Ranch will just love having that in the neighborhood.
SD is faced with some real geographic hurdles for any airport expansion — hills, canyons, the ocean…not to mention the NIMBY factor.
However, there is a 13,000 ft. runway at March Air Reserve Base — just a little over an hour north on the I-15/215. Not exactly a quick commute, but readily available for use (potentially). High-speed rail service to the area from SD would make this a real possibility (I know, this is now in the realm of real fantasy!).
There’s a limit on commercial flights at March already — works out to something like 30 flights per day, if I recall correctly. At the moment there are zero, but a few years ago, DHL was using it as a hub (night flights!).
High speed rail to March would be interesting — but at a distance of 90 miles it would be, best case, about an hour from downtown San Diego to March, so it’s not a great option either.
Within 20 years, San Diego will be well and truly screwed when it comes to air service. Perhaps that’s why the Board of Supervisors is trying to expand Palomar. Again, I’m not sure why there aren’t Carlsbadians (Carlsbadites?) storming Board of Supervisor meetings with pitchforks and barrels of tar…
Thanks for the details enplaned!
Wasn’t one of the main barriers to converting Miramar was the increase of planes flying over La Jolla? Would an airport built further east enable planes to get up faster and not bother the La Jollans as much?
Fixed mortgage rates have fallen to historic new lows for a fourth straight week and are likely to fall further.
The average on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.01 percent this week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s the lowest rate since the mortgage buyer began keeping records in 1971. The last time long-term rates were lower was in 1951, when most long-term home loans lasted just 20 or 25 years.
The average on a 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, ticked down to 3.28 percent. Economists say that’s the lowest rate ever for the loan.
Enplanned, people from Carlsbad did not storm the meeting because they held it downtown at the County building. People in Carlsbad don’t venture south past the 56 freeway.
Put that meeting at the airport and it will be packed with residents.
There might be a different motive for extending the runway then stated…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClellan-Palomar_Airport
“The airport is planned to be the main base for California Pacific Airlines, which intends to begin flights on six routes from the airport towards the end of 2011. The planned destinations are Sacramento, California, San Jose, California, Oakland, California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Phoenix, Arizona, and Cabo San Lucas using 70-seat Embraer 170 aircraft.”
I think this would be awesome. John Wayne is about the same distance as Lindbergh from Carlsbad.
Hear hear on a East Miramar Airport. How much more can the downtown airport expand? Plus no more driving on surface streets to get to… The Miramar airport would have dedicated on/off ramps to the 15, and a more central location.
Maybe no one showed up in opposition because this is only a study. When the work is proposed, that is when the screaming should begin and the County can use this study (with no public opposition) as leverage to build, since by that time they will have invested $3.7 million PER MILE to study this 0.2 mile extension. Is it OK since funding is from an airport fund, not the general fund? Is the airport fund awash in surpluses and never transfers from the general fund? If there is a surplus, do Federal Airport Improvement grants prevent the County from tapping airport fund reserves to help out any general fund shortfalls?
JtR, yes, if the runways were east of I-15 then the aircraft would achieve substantial height by the time they hit the coast. And of course if the airport was in the hills, aircraft would already start quite a ways above the coastal areas.
AL – per Federal law, revenues generated by an airport cannot be taken off of the airport — though there are some exceptions baked into the legislation for certain airports, like the NYC airports where the Port Authority has far more flexibility than usual. This prevents communities treating their airports like a piggybank.
Also, if an extension were built, it would likely receive most of its funding from the Feds. The Feds fund most runway work in the US. Consequently the US has far more airports proportionately than, say, Canada. Ironically, in Canada the airports have to pay rent to the Canadian govt! So air travel costs a lot more there.
Shadash — everything California Pacific wants to do it can do with the existing Carlsbad runway. I don’t believe CalPac is a big driver of this initiative.
Lastly, one of the biggest benefits from moving SD airport to another locale would be the release of a huge amount of prime downtown real estate. Just imagine the value of Lindbergh on the open market as a new neighborhood.
Not to mention you wouldn’t have those hairy down-the-hill approaches of landing aircraft anymore. If an airplane loses it one of these days, it’s gonna be horrendous.
Wasn’t one of the main barriers to converting Miramar was the increase of planes flying over La Jolla? Would an airport built further east enable planes to get up faster and not bother the La Jollans as much?
planes leaving miramar go down the sorrento valley corridor out to the ocean. They cannot go straight over to la jolla – unless they are the blue angels – because if the take off goes wrong, a commercial 737/747 would potentially plough straight into the high priced real estate on Mt Soledad… and the well connected residents there are not going to allow that. I used to live pretty much at the end of the runway at Miramar – on Nobel, and we never heard any noise really – except during the air show or I guess, when that nasty UTC plane crash happened which was opposite where I used to live. They all had to take the SV corridor. When we first lived there, around the time of tailhook, many of the windows in the complex got broken from the blue angels (many of the pilots also lived there) doing a barrel roll next to the swimming pool. We also got to see them flying under our windows in the canyon – that was really cool.
and they have built a lot more tall buildings in UTC itself now… that will also influence where they can go