By LESTER CHANG
As a way to help it maintain Moffett Field, NASA should consider using the former naval air base as a site for making movies or developing an air and science center, representatives from nonprofit groups and businesses told the agency on March 10.
NASA also should consider using parts of the airfield for a wildlife refuge, they said.
NASA will consider those options, but it is more likely to support air cargo services and space camps at the former base, said Suzanne Petroni, a marketing director for NASA at the airfield.
Those operations would enable NASA to maintain the field as a federal facility, Petroni said during a break in a meeting of the Community Advisory Committee on Moffett Federal Airfield, held at the Sunnyvale Public Library.
However, NASA would prefer tenants that will directly support the aerospace industry, she said.
But whatever options are selected, NASA should not allow small-plane operations, said Ward Seitz of the El Mira Mobile Home Owners Association in Sunnyvale.
People won't put up with a fleet of small planes flying over their homes during the day, he added.
Darryl Seif, vice president of the Entertainment Industry Development Board, pitched the idea of movie-making as a way to help NASA pay the rent.
He said movie companies could use the hangars for filming and build sets at the airfield. "The entertainment industry can work with anybody, on any project," he said.
Seif's company, formed through the joint efforts of the film industry and the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, works with government officials to help entertainment companies get shooting permits and find locations, he said.
He couldn't say how much revenue such companies could pay NASA for using the airfield. His company would act as an intermediary, and both sides would have to negotiate the amount of the lease.
NASA also could generate funds through the creation of an air and space center inside a renovated hangar, said Carl Honaker, president of the Moffett Field Historical Society.
Among other features, the center would house two movie theaters, an educational facility, an exposition hall, restaurants and gift shops, he said. It would be developed at a cost of $40 million to $100 million.
Commissioner Paul Lesti said he liked the proposal because it offers NASA another way to obtain funds to support Moffett Airfield.
While a wildlife refuge isn't likely to generate much revenue for NASA, it will re-create a much-needed habitat for wildlife and plants, said Lenny Siegel, director of the Pacific Studies Center, a nonprofit research center based in Mountain View.
The committee has scheduled another meeting at the Sunnyvale Library on April 1 to solicit more public comment. In May, the group plans to submit a report listing recommendations for the city councils of Mountain View and Sunnyvale to review.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 19, 1997.
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