Nobody Noticed This Hazard To Flight

by ANN Associate Editor James Aronovsky

A 12 story building -- standing just one block out of the official airport boundary -- is causing some San Diego, CA pilots major concern as the developer, Sunroad Enterprises, finishes construction on the 180 foot structure.

The problem seems to neither the city, the state, or the federal government ever talked to one other about the construction until they noticed a giant building very close to the field.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says the FAA has warned the building is a hazard and will have a "substantial adverse effect on the safe (operation)” of the airport, but the feds are powerless to stop construction, because the structure stands just outside the official area. Since the FAA can't do anything about it, the California Department of Transportation is considering a court order to halt construction -- and the city of San Diego has just ordered the builder to stop work on anything above the tenth floor. 

Montgomery Field is a city-owned general aviation airport that lies about eight miles north of downtown San Diego. MYF is the second busiest general aviation field in the county with a high percentage of business, air-ambulance, and small-cargo flights as well as a substantial amount of flight training.

While the high building shouldn't be a major factor for VFR operations, it would stand less than 400 feet away from a plane executing a correct circling approach under instrument conditions.

As a pilot based at this very field, I have watched this tower begin to grow and have noticed that it is a fine landmark to spot just where I should be on my downwind leg for Runway 28 Right. It is also very close to the path I fly when I practice IFR circling approaches to Runway 23 while earning my instrument ticket. My safety pilot can tell if I'm on track by gauging how close I come to this unfinished structure. If I were to circle too wide, the disastrous results could be identical to what happened to Cory Lidle in New York.

The building towers less than one mile northwest of the departure end of 28 and as you can see from photographs, even VFR pilots performing touch and gos now have to pay closer attention as they climb to pattern altitude because it lies almost exactly at the junction of the downwind to base leg.

Barbara Lichman, an attorney for the developer, says the company has done nothing wrong and the city granted all the permits. She told the Union-Tribune "I  want to make it clear we didn't pull the wool over anybody's eyes,” Lichman said. “We met every land-use standard of the city's permitting process.” 

Well, not exactly. When the FAA first started to complain, Sunroad agreed to reduce the building's height to 160 feet and the FAA withdrew its objections. Two months later, it submitted another plan and this time admitted their building was actually going to be 180 feet tall. And by the way, the framing was already up.

Kelly Broughton, deputy director of the San Diego Development Services Department, said because the building was just outside the airport's jurisdiction, the city wasn't legally required to consider the effect of such a large hazard. He told the Union-Tribune, “Just because there is a tall building near an airport doesn't make it a safety issue.”

Still, the city's Department of Land Use and Economic Development has told the developer not to perform any more work above the tenth story.

Tom Story, a Sunroad executive who is evidently a proponent of the better-to ask-forgiveness-than-permission school of action, told the U-T “It's not a reality to take two stories off.”

The California Department of Transportation is planning to get a court order to stop construction. The agency sent a warning in September: “If an aircraft accident occurs at the site because of this violation, you are assuming all liability for the accident.” The letter continues, “Until you receive a permit from the Department, it is unlawful for you to proceed with construction.”

Sunroad's lawyer claims the state has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Ironically, the structure is being raised on the former site of General Dynamics Convair Division... where Intercontinental Ballistic Atlas missiles were built decades ago.

FMI: www.sandiego.gov/airports/montgomery/index.shtml,  www.sunroad-centrum.com/