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McClellan-Palomar Airport: FAA Grant Enforcement?

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Did county’s Palomar landfills violate FAA grant requirements?

The Issues

For nearly two years, we have been waiting for the FAA to explain:

  • Trash Dumping. Did the FAA consent in writing to the County of San Diego dumping about 800,000 cubic yards of trash in 30 acres of McClellan-Palomar Airport canyons over a 14-year period?
  • Trash Dumping Interim Safety Risks. If so, on what basis since dumping trash both (i) endangered Palomar Airport runway operations by attracting birds to the trash heaps just 1,000 feet away from aircraft using the airport and (ii) violated the FAA Grant conditions that preclude use of airports for non-airport purposes without written Secretary of Transportation permission.
  • Trash Dumping Extraordinary Costs and Permanent Safety Risks. Why would the County of San Diego be eligible for future FAA grants to extend its 4,900-foot runway up to 800 feet over the now closed landfill when by dumping trash, county has (i) increased the cost of extending the runway by more than 1,000 percent, (ii) created a safety hazard by exposing increasingly larger aircraft to the landfill methane gas collection system that lies 4 to 7 feet below the Palmar runway east end, and (iii) violated the FAA grant conditions?
  • IPERA. How is the FAA complying with the federal Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act when the County of San Diego applies for future FAA grants to extend and/or relocate the Palomar runway?

  [Read more…]

Mayor’s Office Confirms Sale of Liberty Station Leases by McMillin – But Questions Remain

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After the Times of San Diego story of the sale of Liberty Station leases by McMillin Company to a Michigan company broke on Wednesday, there have been further developments in the unwinding of just what and when it all happened.

To recap briefly, it was reported that McMillin sold leases to Seligman Group on Wednesday, but nobody in city government appeared to have heard about it. The city is supposed to monitor and approve any sales of the leases at Liberty Station by terms of its agreement with McMillin. Especially of concern is the fate of the North Chapel at Liberty Station.

But by the next day, things had changed. Thursday afternoon, as the Times of SD reported, Christina Chadwick, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kevin Faulconer, had confirmed the deal. She added an operator has been found by the new owner, who would continue to allow religious worship at the chapel.   [Read more…]

McClellan-Palomar Airport: The Truth?

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On October 10, 2018, the county Board of Supervisors (BOS) adopted a 20-year plan for McClellan-Palomar (Palomar) Airport in Carlsbad and certified an EIR.

A month later, the citizens group Citizens for a Friendly Airport (see c4fa.org) filed suit challenging the county decision. A suit verdict is likely in mid or late 2019. Issues the court may have to wrestle with include:

  • Accuracy of County Project Description. In public presentations, county staff repeatedly said the purpose of extending the Palomar runway up to 800 feet was to increase aircraft safety, not to attract more aircraft. Yet several supervisors approving the Palomar Master Plan (PMP) glowingly noted Palomar’s ability to act as a “reliever” airport for overflow Lindbergh traffic.

One question for the court would be: Did the county engage in a “bait and switch” – analyzing low levels of Palomar use in the EIR, while encouraging higher use levels with Lindbergh diversions?

  [Read more…]

The Myth of Mom n Pop: What the Anti-Rent Control Forces and AirBnB Have in Common

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As a mainstay of the American Dream–family home ownership– is declining, the land barons of the twenty-first century have been busy using that foundational yearning to disguise their true intent.

Dressing a corporate crusade as a defense of the small investor is a trick as old as the hills. It’s especially useful when the actual behavior –if known–of the corporate entities involved would be considered repugnant.

This was the crux of the successful petition drive leading up to the San Diego City Council’s rollback of regulations aimed at the overnight stay market locations in residential neighborhoods. It’s also at the heart of the massive effort to defeat Proposition 10, the initiative allowing localities to consider rent control ordinance.

  [Read more…]

Fanita Ranch Development Opposed by Santee City Council District 1 Candidate

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Evlyn Andrade-Heymsfield is vying for Santee’s District 1 City Council seat. Rumor has it, she is giving eight-year incumbent Rob McNelis a run for his money. 

People in District 1 can’t turn their heads without seeing signs that read, “Evlyn.” She’s running on her first name, not only because her last name is unwieldy for some tongues, but because she truly is on a first-name basis with so many of the voters. 

Santee, which always had an at-large, citywide voting system, was divided into four election districts in April of 2018. The smaller voting pool of the district system has enabled newcomer candidates, like Evlyn, to hit every resident’s door.    [Read more…]

Some Big Developments | My Reporter’s Life, Part Two

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I didn’t know that the police beat was one of the tests normally applied to newcomers until the San Diego Evening Tribune editors released me from it after six months and, to my surprise, had me cover the County Board of Supervisors.

Developers had been pumping out two-story stuccoes amidst the chapparaled and original Spanish land grants to the east and the north of the city. The collapse of C. Arnholt Smith’s US National Bank was at this time the largest bank failure in US history, so I was a bit surprised to be assigned to cover the Board of Supervisors; after having been in town only 12 months or so I figured I didn’t know f-all about the county.

The Union had a former Associated Press guy covering the Supervisors, a veteran not easily excited or cowed by the job, and he helped me out, as if I were his kid brother, maybe 15 years younger.

Don’t worry, he’d tell me, nothing really happens here. You’ll be fine. Something like that.   [Read more…]

Don’t Blame Scooters. Blame the Streets. | Video Worth Watching

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From the Vox YouTube website:

Vox teamed up with the University of California to explain one of the hottest trends of 2018: dockless electric scooters. Even in cities with exceptional public transportation coverage, gaps persist. This is a decades old problem, often referred to as ‘the last mile/first mile.’ Cities traditionally address the last mile problem by expanding bus routes. But as cities continue to populate while transportation dept budgets dwindle, the patience of commuters is running dry. So scooters, electric skateboards, and pedal assist bikes have become an increasingly popular option for city residents. These innovations, while quite popular, also draw the ire of the oft-beleaguered sidewalk pedestrian. The past century of development prioritized car transportation, often at the expense of wide sidewalks that were once bustling with life. So the planners of today are taking a page out of history to prepare for a brave new world of alternative transportation.

  [Read more…]

After the Day San Diego’s Establishment Shattered; Lessons to Be Learned and a Way Forward

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By Cory Briggs

Something really good for San Diegans happened last Thursday: The rabid, asinine pursuit of a convention center expansion on the waterfront hit a concrete wall at 100 miles per hour.  But that wasn’t the best part about Kevin Faulconer’s last-minute effort to put a “citizens’ initiative” on the November 2018 ballot after an “unprecedented coalition” failed in its “Herculean effort” to gather enough signatures to clear the mark. 

For San Diegans, the best thing that could have happened was for The Establishment – the usual special-interest suspects on the right and the left who run City Hall – to break into a thousand tiny pieces.  That is indeed what happened.  Hallelujah!

I’m sure that my Twitter feed and e-mail inbox will start blowing up as soon as people read that last paragraph, if not before they finish this one.  I’m going to be accused of being anti-worker because, as those who had front-row seats to The Establishment’s demise last week know, some of the biggest names in San Diego’s labor movement were part of the “unprecedented coalition” that crashed and burned.  Many of them I consider good friends; outside City Hall, if I needed the shirts off their backs, they’d give them to me without hesitation (and vice-versa).   [Read more…]

San Diego in National Spotlight: Failure to Prohibit Section 8 Discrimination Hurts Homeless Veterans

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By Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi / UrbDeZine

Achieving Housing Choice and Mobility in the Voucher Program: Recommendations for the Administration is in the latest edition of the American Bar Association Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law (Vol. 27-1).

The article recognizes the Housing Choice Voucher Program as vital to helping homeless individuals and low-income families’ overcome barriers to housing stability and a powerful tool to deconcentrate poverty and decrease racial segregation in our nation’s communities.  While acknowledging the program’s potential to improve individual lives, families, and communities, the article discusses the program’s failure to meet its housing and community goals:

Tenants with a voucher disproportionately live in low-rent, racially segregated neighborhoods. In fact, almost a quarter million children in the voucher program live in neighborhoods of extreme poverty. Many voucher families are unable to obtain rental housing outside of areas of poverty and, in some cases, fail to lease up at all.   [Read more…]

Short-Term Rentals Get a Short Leash from San Diego’s City Council

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After 5 plus hours of public testimony, a bi-partisan majority of the San Diego City Council today, Monday, July 16, halted Mayor Faulconer’s proposal on short-term vacation rentals and approved by a vote of 6 to 3 Councilwoman Barbara Bry’s proposal to limit the rentals to “primary residence” and onsite granny flat.

In the end, 4 Democrats (Bry, Myrtle Cole, Georgette Gomez, Chris Ward  ) and 2 Republicans (Lorie Zapf and Mark Kersey) voted for the so-called “Bry Proposal”. In essence, the Bry plan limits short-term rentals to the primary residence – and if there’s an accessory unit, a so-called “granny flat” – the host is allowed to rent that out as well, as that still meets the requirement for the host to be on the property during the visit.

Faulconer’s proposal went down on a 3 to 6 vote, with only Cate, Sherman and Kersey voting for it.   [Read more…]

Ocean Beach’s Future Likely to Be Decided on Monday, July 16

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It is a truth that is staggering. And it is not hyperbole.

The future of Ocean Beach very likely will be decided this coming Monday, July 16, when the San Diego City Council votes on regulating short term vacation rentals.

This will be their 4th major hearing on these type of rentals, often called mini-hotels – having failed over 3 years to set policy. Up for discussion is Mayor Faulconer’s proposed “compromise” and all he and the short term platform companies like Airbnb need is 5 votes.

If Faulconer’s plan passes in total or in substance – the future of this community has been decided   [Read more…]

McClellan-Palomar Airport Expansion: An Independent Analysis?

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Brother: Can you spare a name?

I worked for the government for thirty years. I’ve read thousands of staff reports. They are strange creatures. All about Mary Poppins and cheeriness; seldom about doom and gloom. Darth Vader is a galaxy away. Why is that? How does the government make an informed decision without a balanced report in front of it?

And, what happens when you ask to see an independent analysis – not just the rosy predictions of handsomely paid consultants hired to do the bidding of politicians enlightened by lobbyists desiring predetermined results, possibly shuffling campaign cash among the politicians?   [Read more…]

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