ENCINITAS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, OceanWorks Development has sent a Notice of Claim to federal, state and local agencies and elected officials to gain exclusive rights to virtually the entire Southern California Bight for the purpose of developing, building and operating an international airport.

This unprecedented claim was submitted to the Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Aviation Administration, among more than a dozen other agencies. The Claim begins the process to lay the legal foundation for the project. Currently, OceanWorks plans to situate the airfield some 10 miles off the San Diego coastline.

OceanWorks CEO Adam Englund said, “The Claim will provide our investors with assurance of OceanWorks’ exclusive rights to this development within the claimed area. It is the first step to making our vision a reality.”

OceanWorks’ Claim to the 40,000 sq. mile area was prompted last fall, after the San Diego Airport Authority failed to find a suitable site within or near San Diego County for an urgently needed new airport. An initiative put forth by the Authority seeking public support for locating the airport at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was opposed by the military and environmentalists and overwhelmingly defeated by the voters.

Said Englund: “The offshore option is the best and apparently the only viable one for San Diego. We aim to make it the most secure, self’sustaining, economically vibrant, and greenest airport ever built.”

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