CARLSBAD — A local citizen group is suing the County of San Diego over leaders’ recent approval of a ground lease with United Airlines at the McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, its second lawsuit regarding the airport in the past year.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a ground lease with United in December, 4-1, allowing the airline to operate eight daily flights from the airport using a 70-seat Embraer 175 aircraft. This includes two departing flights to San Francisco and Denver, and four arriving flights from those locations.
Carlsbad-based Citizens For a Friendly Airport (C4FA) alleges in its lawsuit that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to adequately assess the potential environmental impacts of the additional flights.
While United is expected to begin offering flights at the airport in late March, C4FA is seeking an injunction to prevent the lease from proceeding.
“An environmental impact report must be prepared for a proposed project if there is a fair argument, supported by substantial evidence in the administrative record, that the project may have an adverse environmental impact,” the lawsuit states.
State environmental law allows an agency to forgo an environmental impact report (EIR) if a project is unlikely to have a major environmental impact. The lawsuit claims that there is a fair argument, supported by substantial evidence, that additional United flights could have impacts that would trigger the need for an EIR.
The lawsuit contains many of the same allegations seen in a separate action filed by C4FA last year, which challenged the board’s approval of a two-year lease with American Airlines to offer daily flights to Phoenix from Palomar Airport.
The city of Carlsbad has joined the lawsuit over the American Airlines lease, and the case is ongoing. When the Board of Supervisors approved the ground lease with United, Carlsbad city officials urged the county to wait for the outcome of the American Airlines lawsuit.
City officials also requested that the county first obtain an amendment to the airport’s conditional use permit through the city before considering the United Airlines lease agreement.
Several residents also voiced opposition to the United Airlines lease at the supervisors meeting, citing noise, air quality impacts, and other concerns.
Palomar Airport is one of seven airports owned and operated by the county and has been serving Carlsbad since 1959. It is designated as a commercial service airport and categorized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a non-hub primary airport, certified to serve scheduled small aircraft with 10 to 30 seats, scheduled large aircraft with 30 or more seats, and unscheduled large airliners.
United previously operated out of Palomar Airport for nearly 20 years, until 2015, when it switched to larger aircraft that did not fit Palomar’s runway.
County spokesperson Donna Durckel said they cannot comment on litigation. However, she noted that a McClellan-Palomar Airport Master Plan Update Program EIR approved by the board in 2021 did include CEQA review.
“When it comes to CEQA overall for the airport operations, the McClellan-Palomar Airport Master Plan Update Program EIR (PEIR) was certified by the County Board of Supervisors on December 8, 2021. The PEIR included the environmental review of forecasted commercial air passenger service up to 575,000 annual enplanements,” Durckel said. “In accordance with CEQA Guidelines Section 15168(c), an Environmental Review Update Checklist was completed, and the analysis concludes that the project would result in no new impacts.”
This story was updated to include a comment from the County of San Diego.
