Airlines at Paine Field
debated

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Newly released government documents may ultimately settle the hotly contested question of whether Paine Field can develop airline passenger services despite a 1979 negotiated Mediation Role Determination agreement.

The MRD has guided Snohomish County growth policies at the airport for 27 years with an emphasis on discouraging airline access.

Now, supporters of air carriers at Paine Field have found that the MRD is nullified by the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act (ANCA) of 1990, which required airlines to use quieter engines and “prohibited discrimination or legal constraints to block commercial service at the nation’s airports.”

The two sides in the debate over airline service — the Snohomish County Private Enterprise Coalition of business owners and the Mukilteo-based citizen activist group Save Our Communities — dueled with PowerPoint presentations at the May 18 meeting of the MRD review board appointed by County Executive Aaron Reardon.

Although it was strictly an information session, each side presented a detailed view of their individual positions, with SOC maintaining that airline flights would destroy the quality of life in the communities around Paine Field with noise, air pollution and the cost of related site and road development that would be needed to host one or more air carriers.

“Save Our Communities, which has thousands of members in the county, is dedicated to preserving our quality of life by retaining the current role of Paine Field (as a general aviation airport) established by the 1979 MRD,” said Gregory Hauth, a Mukilteo resident and financial planning consultant with SmithBarney in Seattle.

“It’s a myth that Paine Field cannot discriminate against airline service,” Hauth said, adding that the discrimination would forfeit approximately $2 million a year in federal airport funds, but that would be “far less than the $1 billion estimate of expenses related to approving airline service.”

Hauth said the citizens group wants to protect the area’s quality of life from more airport noise, but they’re not against business development, noting that in its existing state the Snohomish County Airport already is attracting new business regularly. Also, new businesses should be invited to come to the county at some other location than Paine Field.

He said SOC’s research has estimated that an airline presence at Paine Field could cause 10 percent to 25 percent losses in property values for homes near the airport, plus costing millions of dollars for such things as sound-proofing schools in the flight path of the planes.

Hauth urged approval of a proposed Inter-Local Agreement between Snohomish County and Mukilteo to “continue to emphasize a general aviation role for the airport and to strongly discourage all other uses, such as scheduled air service or air cargo service.”

The Private Enterprise Coalition countered that not bringing the airline service to the airport would further hinder attracting businesses to the county who want the presence of a passenger airport to escape the drive to Sea-Tac International on a car-clogged Interstate 5.

The PEC group also maintained that newer, quieter 737s and other modern jetliners would not have a major impact on the concerned communities of Mukilteo, Edmonds, Woodway, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace. Councils in each city have passed resolutions against development of airline use of Paine Field.

Although recent meetings have explored airport operations, noise studies and the pros and cons of bringing airline service to Paine Field, the basic reason the MRD panel was assembled by the county executive — with co-chairs Ray Stephanson, mayor of Everett, and Don Doran, former Mukilteo mayor — was solely to review the MRD document itself.

The disagreement over the agreement is that the MRD, while not a binding legal document, carries text strongly disapproving of any efforts to bring airline traffic to the field. The MRD supports maintaining the airport as a general aviation field, except for Boeing and Goodrich tenants who fly 747s and other large airliners in and out of the field.

Business interests, who see a need for an airline presence to stimulate economic growth in the county, argue that the MRD document should be changed to encourage and welcome any interested airlines.

Beyond that discussion, the PEC group maintains that the MRD is too outdated to be even a guide for present airport development nearly three decades after it was written. PEC presenter Hans Toorens, owner of Worldwide Business Development, Marketing and Sales Management in Monroe, noted that the MRD is nullified by the ANCA.

“The ANCA legislated the elimination of all Stage 2 (high-noise level) airliners in the United States by the end of 1999, established criteria for noise and access restrictions at U.S. airports and prohibited discrimination or legal constraints to block commercial service at the nation’s airports,” he said.

Today, the outdated MRD, based on 1978 aircraft noise “footprints,” has no foundation as a guide to aviation uses at Paine Field, Toorens said.

Toorens’ presentation also showed letters written by former special deputy prosecuting attorney Edward Level, who represented Paine Field in legal matters for many years, expressing his legal interpretation that control and operation of public airports is governed by federal and state laws, not by nonlegal documents such as Paine Field’s MRD.

“The county holds title to the airport as a trustee for the benefit of the public, particularly users of the airport,” Toorens said, reading from Level’s letters. The airport was deeded to the county by the federal government “on the condition that it is to be used as a (public) airport … without discrimination,” Level wrote.

More than $30 million in federal funding has been invested at Paine Field over the past 14 years, including the recent construction of an $8 million Federal Aviation Administration control tower for the airport.

Tom Hoban, a PEC member and chief executive of Coast Real Estate Services in Everett, said he regularly talks with businesses that were interested in locating in Snohomish County until they experienced traffic gridlock on their journey from Sea-Tac and realized the county has no plans for airline service at Paine Field.

“Too often, I lose these business prospects I’m trying to recruit, businesses and jobs that should be coming to Snohomish County,” Hoban said. “We believe that the Snohomish County Airport can be developed with airline service without impacting communities around it with more noise. This isn’t a business versus SOC issue. Business creates jobs, opportunities and supports our way of life. Business has a stake in how this county-owned asset is used.”

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