Multiple-Airport Study Is Scrapped for Now : Aviation: Sandag committee will review joint military-civilian use of Miramar Naval Air Station instead.

The San Diego Assn. of Governments declined Friday to commission a $400,000 study of a “multiple airport” solution for crowded Lindbergh Field, returning the issue to subcommittees for reconsideration.

Sandag’s board of directors also added a wrinkle to the continuing attempt to relocate the airport when it instructed the committees to consider another alternative, the joint military-civilian use of Miramar Naval Air Station.

The instructions came after six South Bay officials asked that the joint-use option “be seriously studied” by the Sandag committee investigating the best location for a new airport.

“It’s something that has been looked at, in my opinion, in a very cursory way in the past,” said Chula Vista Mayor Greg Cox, a Sandag board member.

Earlier in its yearlong study, the committee ruled out joint military-civilian use of Miramar because airspace above the sprawling Navy base would be congested and speed differences between military and civilian aircraft might pose a hazard, said Jack Koerper, Sandag’s special projects director.

The committee has narrowed relocation options to sole civilian use of Miramar, a new facility on land east of Miramar and a binational airport on Otay Mesa.

However, joint use could be reconsidered on the assumption that Lindbergh would remain open, reducing the demand on Miramar, Koerper said Friday.

The six politicians believe that joint use at Miramar was never given serious consideration because of political problems posed by the Navy, which is opposed to any civilian use of Miramar.

In what amounted to a declaration of the political will to take on the Navy, the politicians stated in their letter to Sandag that “a realistic solution requires--at minimum-- full consideration of NAS Miramar.”

The letter was signed by U.S. Rep. Jim Bates, D-San Diego; State Sen. Wadie Deddeh, D-Bonita; State Rep. Steve Peace, D-Chula Vista; San Diego City Councilman Bob Filner; County Supervisor Brian Bilbray and Cox. Also signing the letter was Tom Carroll of the Airline Pilots Assn.

Cmdr. Douglas Mann, an advisory Sandag member, repeated Friday that the Navy opposes joint use of Miramar under any circumstances.

Filner and fellow Councilman Ron Roberts also have called for study of a “multiple airport” option that would parcel out among four airports the 35 million passengers expected here by next century. As envisioned, the major facilities would be at Lindbergh and at an expanded Brown Field in the South Bay, with Montgomery Field and McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad picking up commuter traffic.

Sandag’s Airport Advisory Policy Committee on Thursday had agreed to examine the option, a process that would have added $400,000 and another year to the relocation study, which already has lasted a year.

However, Filner complained that the criteria built into the study would result in its automatic rejection, a point repeated Friday by the city’s representative to Sandag, Councilman Ed Struiksma.

At Struiksma’s urging, the matter was returned to the two subcommittees for further consideration.