MOFFETT Field is a valuable piece of property. It can benefit our regional economy without degrading our quality of life. But it's a bad place to put an airport.
If the Mercury News had given the Moffett debate more regular coverage, the merits of various proposals for Moffett's future would be clearer. The air cargo proposal has been dead for months. When, on Nov. 25, both the Mountain View and Sunnyvale councils took unanimous positions against air cargo, they merely nailed the coffin shut.
The advisory committee majority that considered air cargo ``conditionally acceptable'' had based its position on stringent conditions for noise mitigation which probably could not be met. And NASA has never had the statutory authority to bring in the air cargo companies. That would have taken an act of Congress.
A more serious threat is general aviation. San Jose's airport wants to shift small planes to Moffett. Understandably, most of us who live near Moffett fear the round-the-clock drone of small aircraft.
Neither NASA nor the Defense Department has much use for the Moffett airstrip. It's therefore likely that the federal government will declare much of the former Navy base surplus property in the not-too-distant future. The Federal Aviation Administration and its local collaborators suggest that Moffett would automatically become an airport, but the General Services Administration, which is responsible for federal property disposal, says otherwise. If local communities come up with an alternative plan, it will be seriously considered.
Moffett is not a good location for a civilian airfield. Its runways point directly at a stable, heavily populated community. Its airspace is crammed between two major international airports.
However, Moffett can contribute to the economy, culture, and environment of Silicon Valley. An air-and-space museum in the giant Hangar No. 1 looks like a winner if someone can come up with a viable financial plan. Four hundred acres of wetlands and adjacent uplands can be turned over to the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge and opened to the public through the completion of the Bayfront Trail loop.
The north end of the runway can also be restored as natural wetlands, like Hamilton Field in Marin County. Much of the airfield is below sea level. The unique feature of Moffett, from a regional perspective, is not that it has been covered with concrete or asphalt for 60 years, but that much of it is historically part of the San Francisco Bay.
The conversion of Moffett can help mitigate Silicon Valley's twin problems of housing costs and glacial commutes. Located at the region's employment center astride major transportation routes, including the new light rail corridor, Moffett is ideally suited for medium-density residential neighborhoods. In fact, Silicon Valley business needs housing this side of Livermore more than it needs a new airport.
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