Why this matters
Carlsbad and many of its residents oppose adding more flights to the airport and advocate for more local control.
Four more commercial flights will begin daily flights out of McClellan Palomar Airport in March, thanks to a vote from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors approved a three year lease with United Airlines on Wednesday. There will be two flights to San Francisco each day and two to Denver, Colorado. United will join American Airlines, Advanced Air and JSX as part of the recent growth of commercial flights and public charter flights at the Carlsbad airport. United Airlines previously had commercial flights at Palomar, but pulled out in 2015 when it switched to larger aircrafts that did not fit on the runway.
The city of Carlsbad as well as many of its residents object to adding more flights to the airport — which has no mandatory curfew — because it already bombards them with noise and environmental effects day and night. Three quarters of the 450 public comments in advance of Wednesday’s meeting were opposed to the lease and over 750 North County residents signed a petition objecting to commercial jets at the airport.
“We need LOCAL CONTROL. Let’s keep Palomar small, SAFE, community-focused, and friendly,” the petition reads.
The local group Citizens for a Friendly Airport filed a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit against the county after the approval of the American Airlines flights in January. Carlsbad joined the lawsuit in November, arguing that approving the lease violates its conditional use permit for the airport.
“This reflects poorly on responsible stewardship of the airport and commitment to community engagement to identify strategies for minimizing negative impacts,” Jason Haber, Carlsbad’s intergovernmental affairs director, told the Board of Supervisors Wednesday. “The county should therefore delay consideration of a lease with United Airlines until the county has sought and obtained an amendment to the airport’s conditional use permit.”
The county and the federal aviation administration, meanwhile, maintain that it is not up to local governments to decide. Should the FAA deem the flights safe, the county risks being considered discriminatory if it rejects United’s plea. The United flights were already being sold online prior to Wednesday’s meeting.
“We really don’t have any grounds to not allow United into the airport here in Carlsbad,” Supervisor Jim Desmond said. “In fact, it would be discriminatory for us not to approve the lease with them without a qualifying safety or administrative reasons.”
Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, whose district includes Carlsbad, voted against the lease. She pushed to get United Airlines to sign a contract promising it would not create more flights outside of Palomar Airport’s curfew, but city staff said that that would not be enforceable because those rules are set federally. Lawson-Remer also asked staff to continue working on the process of getting enforceable curfew through appealing the FAA.
“This is a really frustrating situation. I feel like it’s deja vu,” Lawson-Remer said, referencing when she said she felt like she was forced to approve the American Airlines lease in January. She said there was not enough attention being paid to the impact on the people who live near and around the airport.
The first United Airlines flight is expected to take off in March, and until then, Carlsbad residents say they will see the county in court, where the next hearing is Dec. 19.
Clarification: This story was updated Dec. 11 to distinguish the difference between commercial and public charter carriers operating at Palomar Airport.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
