Commercial flights for Paine Field redebated

By Jane Hodges
Times Snohomish County bureau

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Wayne Elsaesser doesn't want to see a nuclear-waste dump, sewage-treatment facility or rendering plant anywhere near his home in Snohomish County — and he certainly doesn't want to see commercial jetliners crossing the blue sky above his lawn.

Elsaesser, vice president of a community group called Save Our Communities, opposes the idea of commercial flights at the county's largest airport, Paine Field. So yesterday he joined more than 240 people who came to a town-hall meeting at Mukilteo Middle School to talk to legislators, including Sen. Paull Shin, D-Edmonds, and state Reps. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, and Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds, about their concerns.

"This is a pretty important issue for people here," said Bill Swedish, a Mukilteo resident who has lived in the county for 16 years. "I think the environmental issues are huge."

The commercial-flight question isn't new, but it has resurfaced this year for two reasons.

First, the County Council agreed to pay for a Paine Field market study — the first in 25 years — that will evaluate the market potential for business activities such as passenger flights at the airport, which is used predominantly by Boeing and for private and charter flights. The Snohomish County Economic Development Council recently created a task force to assist in the research.

Secondly, Sen. Dave Schmidt, R-Mill Creek, submitted a bill requesting $100,000 in state funding to advance the county-led airport research. Local politicians — including those who support the county-led research — have said Schmidt's bill was ill-timed and would unnecessarily stoke citizens' fears that the airport could become as busy as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

"I told him it was not a well-thought-out idea," said County Executive Aaron Reardon of Schmidt's bill, noting that it caught the public by surprise. "I told him exactly what would happen."

Shin, Sullivan and Cooper said their main reason for organizing the meeting was to voice their opposition to Schmidt's bill and to encourage local residents to make their views known to the County Council.

"We'll make sure quality of life comes first with the Snohomish County Council," Cooper told the crowd.

Shin told the crowd that Schmidt's bill is dead.
 
Many residents who came to the meeting discussed a document developed between 1978 and 1979 that is known as the airport's "mediated role determination," essentially a list of activities the County Council, airport and residents would "encourage" and "discourage" at the airport.

Supporters of commercial flights at Paine Field argue that the report's language does allow for commercial flight — in small doses. Opponents, however, argue the opposite, referring to the report as a compact between government, the airport and the community that bars commercial flight.

John Sullivan, president of the Mukilteo City Council, said "not only (did) the City Council oppose this kind of thing (throughout) the last quarter-century, but we will continue to do so."

The dialogue about Paine Field comes at a time when the county has not yet begun research into the airport's uses.

Paine Field Airport Director Dave Waggoner said the airport has gathered names of consultants interested in performing the research but still is reviewing their credentials.

Commercial flights have operated out of Paine Field in the past, but only intermittently. Many residents, though, want to nip the idea in the bud.

"The airlines will promise anything in the beginning," said Calvin MacDonald, a retired pilot who has lived in Mukilteo for 20 years. "But down the road, there could be red-eye flights or even cargo."

Jane Hodges: 425-745-7813 or jhodges@seattletimes.com

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