Fresh Idea: Moffet Air Field

[birdman7389]

There is a TON of room down there. The only real tennants are NASA AMES (not space shuttle stuff) and a National Guard SAR unit (reserves). The Government has been trying to decide what to do with it for a few years now.

While still in the south bay, it is closer to "San Francisco" than Santa Clara is, an HWY 101 is right there......

Edit: Moffett. 2 "t"s

[sandiegojoe]

interesting. It's big enough, that's for sure. Good freeway access (237, 85, and 101) An airfield would have minimal environmental cleanups. Don't know why it hasn't been mentioned before. I remember ten years ago, talk about using the hangars as movie production studios. Don't know if that worked out so well.

[Teke]

An airfield would have minimal environmental cleanups.


Where do you base this claim from?

[birdman7389]

I know the big hangars may have asbestos, but its not like the shipyard. Its mostly open space down there.

[Nevyn]

There is a TON of room down there. The only real tennants are NASA AMES (not space shuttle stuff) and a National Guard SAR unit (reserves). The Government has been trying to decide what to do with it for a few years now.

While still in the south bay, it is closer to "San Francisco" than Santa Clara is, an HWY 101 is right there......

Edit: Moffett. 2 "t"s

Sounds like a cool idea. But at this point I think Santa Clara would have to vote the proposal down AND Hunter's point cleanup continue to drag and be all talk for the niners to even consider another site.

What municipality would this be in? Any idea if the electricity/water/sewage infrastructure would be in place to accomodate a new stadium?

[sandiegojoe]

Where do you base this claim from?


Experience. I'm an environmental scientist and have seen plenty of cleanups from airfields. In orange county they're cleaning up El Toro, which may be even larger than moffett. And there will be thousands of residences there within a few years. Airfield cleanups are often limited to hydrocarbons and volatile organic fuel constituents in the soil and shallow groundwater. These issues are usually solved easily enough through soil removal and then pump and treat groundwater monitoring systems which are often portable (you just need treatment wells available which could be accessed throughout the week and offseason, and then locked on gameday). If soil gas is an issue, and the groundwater cleanup could take a long time, vapor barriers below the stadium could be installed cheaply enough. Vapor barriers are often installed below residential houses.

Now, I've since looked up more info on Moffett and it looks like cleanup efforts have been underway for a number of years. The problem Moffett had (much like hunters point, but likely less severe) is the shallow groundwater in the area. Fuel and chemical spill over decades get in the shallow groundwater and migrate around based on flow direction and tidal changes. There were some other issues with the groundwater besides just fuel, in part because there were on site landfills and possibly because NASA operated some research facilities in the area which may have contributed to solvent contamination. Solvents are no fun.

It looks like the near coastal part of moffett is undergoing a huge wetland restoration/cleanup, and the eastern portion of the property is clean. I'm not really sure how much room the "clean" part would have for a stadium. And the fact that they've already been working on a huge wetlands project would mean that part of the property is off limits too.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/overview.nsf/0/c2325a5bcf42541c8825660b007ee689?OpenDocument

The moffett site is 2,200 acres, so after the wetlands cleanup, and assessing remaining cleanup in former landfill portions of the site, I don't know how much acreage would be readily available for a stadium. That said, candlestick park takes up about 60 acres. I'd imagine that of those 2,200 acres at moffett there are 60 acres that are significantly cleaner than others where we could set up in a short-enough time frame. If there was a way to propose a purchase of a selected portion of the site with minimal cleanup needed (I used to go to moffett as a kid and there are huge areas of open fields and runways that would likely have minimal cleanup). It could be doable. This is a bit different than the situation with Hunters Point, where we really don't have any choice in which part of the former base to develop. We're stuck with the area they've selected for us. And it's likely the dirtiest area. (You don't want to put houses and businesses over your dirtiest area. Parking lots and an open air stadium require lower contaminant standards due to their use/ likelihood of ingestion and inhalation of contaminants)

Now whether mountain view wants us there or the military has any desire to work something out, I have no idea, I'd imagine it's something the team has looked at before, so there may be a reason we never hear about it.

[Teke]

Experience.

I ask because my wife majored in environmental management. From what she has told me the air force bases are pretty messed up once the government moves out of them. For instance, Norton Air Force base in San Bernardino has become a superfund site because rocket fuel was found to have penetrated the water table.

I haven't paid much attention to El Toro although I drive past it every Sunday on my way to church. There's also that one that has been cleaned up that is Southwest of the El Toro site. They built a huge shopping center there recently. I don't know how long that took though.

I called my wife a few minutes ago to ask about Norton and she told me that it may have been an isolated incident for all she knows. At any rate, if they can clean up the area I'd love to see a stadium built on an area with enough land.

What ever happened to Napa Valley? Every picture I see of that area is rolling hills with tons of wide open space. Is it too far away to build there?

[birdman7389]

Wow good info in that post.

I would think that Moffett would be a great location if they could work a deal.

As pretty as Napa is, it is a little too far out of the way for an NFL stadium. No infrastructure or much of anything out there.

[ethanh]

Still too far from the city but I like the location 10 times better then SC with it being on the bay and standing out on its own. It would have to be after SC and HP fall through, say 2015 anyone?

[TheWiz]

I'm sure I will sound like a broken record but one word comes to mind: Infrastructure.

Infrastructure is a major cost and concern for construction? What do I mean by infrastructure? Utilities, more or less. Water delivery. Sewage lines. Telephone and Data lines. Electricity. Not to mention refuse removal and non-constructable necessities like law enforcement and health care.

An NFL stadium needs all of these. But just beyond need, a community needs to have the resources available.

Napa sounds nice but it sound like a nightmare along these lines. First of all, I doubt massive sewage and water lines capable of supporting a stadium snake through the empty rolling fields. The costs to lay down pipes and probably a separate high voltage line alone can sky rocket. Now figure out how the local community can find enough law enforcement for ~70k people and healthcare in the immediate area for players and/or fans. I'm also going to note that Napa is highly privately invested, it may cost a lot to buy the land and I doubt the region would support it. Another key problem is it moves the stadium not only out of the city but away from a large share of the fans.

[smoking_rubber]

There's a very good chance Moffett has the infrastructure to support the stadium. If they don't, getting it would be relatively easy (compared to a more congested area). Lockheed is right there and I know they have oodles of pipes. Air bases are not known for skimping on pipes and wires.

I hope they seriously look at Moffett . . . Yokazuna. What kind of lease do they have? Probably iron-clad.

[sandiegojoe]

I ask because my wife majored in environmental management. From what she has told me the air force bases are pretty messed up once the government moves out of them. For instance, Norton Air Force base in San Bernardino has become a superfund site because rocket fuel was found to have penetrated the water table.

I haven't paid much attention to El Toro although I drive past it every Sunday on my way to church. There's also that one that has been cleaned up that is Southwest of the El Toro site. They built a huge shopping center there recently. I don't know how long that took though.

I called my wife a few minutes ago to ask about Norton and she told me that it may have been an isolated incident for all she knows. At any rate, if they can clean up the area I'd love to see a stadium built on an area with enough land.

I'm not familiar with Norton.. It really all depends on the use. When I think of Moffet, I think of a similar use to El Toro. Whenever you have an area with runways, you have huge expanses of land with no use at all on them. All the problem areas are under the buildings where machinery use occurs and in the vicinity of fueling areas. So you may hear of a place the size of moffett or el toro being a "superfund site" but in reality, the problem area may be a 10 acre groundwater plume underneath a localized area. Cleaning up that plume could take years and cost millions, but at the same time you can develop other parts of the property.

Shipyards tend to be worse than airfields because they don't have a bunch of open space. They'll have all sorts of machine shops, plating, fueling, in buildings on site, maximized for efficiency. But all military uses of property tend to have some environmental cleanup.

[Coldrain85]

I just posted this in another thread, but it's more relevant here. It's a comprehensive environmental report of Moffett Field. It appears to be good news.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/moffett/mof_p1.html

[co2112]

I love the idea. Im sure Nasa could use some money too.

[sandiegojoe]

I just posted this in another thread, but it's more relevant here. It's a comprehensive environmental report of Moffett Field. It appears to be good news.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/moffett/mof_p1.html

thanks, the key issue:

Remediation of many sites is complete if any of those are big enough for a stadium and parking, that'd be all we need.

[smoking_rubber]

If Moffett were in Santa Clara, this may actually be a possibility. Since it's in Mountain View, the clock would re-start and the York's would have a bit of egg on face. That's unfortunate IMO.