^^I'm all for the Nickelodeon Hotel. But it will be a matter of time when the NIMBYs get their hands all over this.
Did anyone see the front page of today's paper?
Sunroad's plan to build near Lindbergh Field troubles FAA
By Maureen Magee
and David Hasemyer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
June 1, 2007
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At the same time Sunroad Enterprises has been battling over the height of an office tower near Montgomery Field, it has proposed building two hotel towers near Lindbergh Field that also exceed federal standards.
The hotels would be built on public land on the east side of Harbor Island, less than half a mile from the international airport where nearly 300 passenger and cargo planes depart daily.
One of the buildings surpasses Federal Aviation Administration height limits by 125 feet and the other by 69 feet, according to FAA documents and records obtained from the San Diego Unified Port District, which oversees development along San Diego Bay.
The Port Commission reviewed the initial Sunroad proposal, which did not cite building heights, in December 2005 and asked the company to go ahead with environmental reviews. Sunroad later specified heights – which it later said were preliminary – for the towers but ignored directives from the port district and the San Diego Regional Airport Authority to notify the FAA of its plans.
The port recently informed the FAA itself. Three weeks ago, the FAA issued eight separate findings concluding that the proposed hotels would be “hazards to air navigation.”
The port told Sunroad that the heights proposed were unacceptable.
“Our staff position is that any building on the East Harbor Island site will not exceed the FAA's recommended obstruction standards,” port officials wrote in a letter to the developer two weeks ago.
Sunroad cannot build without support from the Port Commission. Since it received the port's letter, Sunroad has questioned the way the FAA decides building heights in the area.
The company told the FAA in a letter sent earlier this week that its consultants say buildings as tall as 403 feet could be safely built on east Harbor Island because it is outside the primary approach and departure routes of planes using Lindbergh Field.
Sunroad remains committed to the project. Its reluctance to confer with the FAA, among other things, has caught some local agencies off guard.
“Maybe they think they have better experts than the FAA,” said Linda Johnson, the airport authority manager in charge of land-use planning. “It does seem like a very bold approach.”
The disagreement comes as Sunroad defends the 180-foot office tower across from Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa that the FAA says exceeds the safe height limit by 20 feet.
The 12-story building has spawned a series of lawsuits and investigations in recent months, and it created a public rift at City Hall between Mayor Jerry Sanders and City Attorney Michael Aguirre.
Aguirre sued Sunroad in December, and the developer countersued the city for $40 million. The city attorney also filed conflict-of-interest charges against Sunroad Vice President Tom Story, who once worked for the San Diego Development Services Department.
Sanders issued a stop-work order on the top two stories of the Kearny Mesa project on May 18 – six months after the height dispute was first reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune and more than a year after the FAA said the tower would pose a danger to pilots.
Sunroad suspects that controversy motivated the port to act.
“I'm sure the port is acting out of an abundance of caution because of the situation that has come up around Montgomery Field,” Sunroad spokeswoman Karen Hutchens said.
Sunroad officials denied that the port directed them to inform the FAA of their plans for the hotel towers, even though letters from the port district to the company refer to such a request.
“Nobody asked Sunroad to submit anything to the FAA,” Hutchens said.
She said it was premature to seek an FAA study of the project because it is still in preliminary planning and years from construction. The building heights submitted to the FAA by port officials were maximum heights Sunroad used for planning purposes and do not reflect a final plan, she said.
“We are in the process of developing a concept for the property,” Hutchens said. “The timing wasn't right for this to go to the FAA.”
She said FAA rules do not demand a review sooner than 30 days before construction begins.
Sunroad executives presented revised plans for the Harbor Island project to commissioners in September, six months after the FAA told the company its office tower in Kearny Mesa was a danger to Montgomery Field pilots landing in bad weather.
The latest revisions call for 600 hotel rooms, 21,000 square feet of meeting space, restaurants, shops and landscaped plazas and promenades.
The project would be built around the existing Sunroad Resort Marina, on property the company leases from the port, and the popular Island Prime restaurant, which subleases its venue from Sunroad.
The Sunroad towers – at 221 and 281 feet, respectively – would far exceed the Sheraton San Diego Hotel as the tallest structures on Harbor Island. The 1,044-room Sheraton is 154 feet tall, just under the FAA's standard.
Since Sunroad objected to the FAA's conclusions, the agency has solicited comments from representatives of airlines, pilot groups, business associations and government agencies.
“We will review the comments and conduct further analysis to determine whether a final hazard determination is warranted,” said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.
Port Commissioners Stephen Cushman and Robert Spane said they were unaware Sunroad's plans were deemed hazardous by federal regulators.
“Sounds like we did our job,” Spane said. “We did used to run the airport. Maybe that has something to do with it.”
The port operated Lindbergh Field for decades before that responsibility was turned over to the San Diego Regional Airport Authority in 2003.
Sunroad originally planned to negotiate a new lease, complete environmental reviews and begin construction by this fall. The Sunroad Harbor Island project was to be completed in early 2010.
All must first be approved by the Port Commission, the State Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission. Finally, the city of San Diego would need to issue building permits.
Sunroad officials have requested a meeting with the federal regulators as soon as possible.
In a letter to the FAA dated May 24, Sunroad said it wants to “determine what alterations need to be considered to eliminate the obstruction of navigable airspace” for the Harbor Island project.
The letter was dated one day after a heated phone conversation between Story, Sunroad's vice president, and Ralph Hicks, the port's land-use director. Hicks documented the phone call in a memo that is now on file at the port district.
“Mr. Story rebutted that port staff had not asked Sunroad to submit this paperwork numerous times,” the memo says. “Mr. Hicks stated that staff has documented proof that these requests were made, and given Sunroad's failure to submit the paperwork or contact the FAA, port staff moved forward.”
Sunroad failed to notify the FAA of plans to build its Kearny Mesa tower near Montgomery Field, claiming it was exempt from the requirement.
According to documents obtained by the Union-Tribune, a company architect said there was an exemption for buildings under 200 feet.
However, the building fell into another FAA review category, one that covers buildings planned within three miles of the airport.
The FAA didn't learn of the $45 million office tower until an anonymous tip advised the federal agency of the developer's plans before construction began in March 2006, at about the same time the city issued a building permit.
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Sunroad's two-hotel development would be built at the tree-lined eastern tip of Harbor Island. The towers would surpass FAA height limits by 125 feet and 69 feet, records show.