Last week we talked about how the SAMP EA can say that the air quality is within standards. There was this (brief) 'golden age' of NEPA where you could get pollutants reviewed and problems fixed. It made dramatic improvements to the environment and public health.
This week, we start providing some history on the Sea-Tac Communities Plan, our 'golden age' following the second runway. And how that rapidly fell apart.
The STCP was passed before the dawn of what you now call DNL65. It established what became the series of zoning 'rings' around the airport. The innermost ring became the noise lands--the property buyout buffer to protect residents outside along the north, west and south sides of the runways. You know these now as North SeaTac Park to the north and the Des Moines Creek Business Park to the south. But there was also a west side.
Within days of the plan's adoption, the same King County Council which approved it, also took up a motion to rezone the west side to allow moving Boeing's headquarters!
Residents were livid and created the Westside Hilltop Survival Committee to fight. Did they 'win'? Yes and no.
Yes, they stopped Boeing from moving. No, they got none of the relief they actually wanted. And double-plus no, it also set in motion a process that unwound every bit of trust it took three years to build. And a lot worse.
Since Boeing wasn't there, the property was left in play just as airport operations started moving past the capacity of two runways.
But when voters repeatedly said "Hello, no!" to siting another airport, or expanding rail service in any way, the State and PSRC saw those 30 acres as the easy path to adding additional aviation capacity.
Hello, Third Runway.
To add a final piece of bitter irony, the FAA had just commissioned a study of the STCP which praised it as the model of community engagement for all future airports. But by the time it was published iin 1977, it was already too late.
Can airport communities ever live in harmony with airport operators? We had a shot at it, with strong environmental protections that gave even small groups a seat at the table, but a financially weak Port of Seattle and a local government that failed.
Now? Things are reversed. Community protections are weak and the Port of Seattle is, for the first time in its history, doing better than any government in the region--including the State of Washington.
But another part of the new reality is 'voluntary'. Which means that the FAA is happy to have airports spend their own money to help communities. The Port is one of the only airports that has the finance to do so. And the Port claims to be the greenest airport in North America.
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