Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, June 1, 2008

GUEST COMMENTARY

Paine Field: Back in the crosshairs

A deal's a deal; communities must be protected

By Gregory Hauth

 In the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," George Bailey says, "Just remember this, Mr. Potter: that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?" Those who oppose scheduled air service at Paine Field are fighting to save our community. Who wouldn't fight to save their home? We have nothing to gain because we won't profit from this effort, but we have everything to lose.

Residents here have a unique deal with Snohomish County cemented in the foundation of every home, church and school in this community. In 1978, communities surrounding Paine Field wanted to build new developments, schools and other infrastructure but they first wanted assurances about the airport. In response, Snohomish County issued a "Mediated Role Determination" for Paine Field. This created a social contract that requires the county to strongly discourage scheduled air service. This contract became the basis for cities around Paine Field to rezone from industrial to residential development.

Federal law now favors airlines once they start air service by preventing any compromise with the community, such as limiting the size of aircraft or frequency of flights. As such, a proposal from Allegiant Air to start up at Paine Field represents an all or nothing proposal. Once Allegiant starts, anyone and everyone can come here. That's not good.

Commencing scheduled air service will start us on a downward spiral from which there is no recovery. Persistent air traffic noise is costly. Studies available from communities around Sea-Tac Airport show that an average home will drop 10.1 percent in value. Another study pegs the devaluation as high as 29 percent. That translates into big numbers: Property values for cities near Sea-Tac in the year 2020 will be $500 million lower than they would be without Sea-Tac expansion. As the tax base shrinks, cities surrounding Paine Field will fall into deficits, creating a downward spiral of fewer revenues and cuts in services.

Expect WASL scores to suffer as noise disables children's learning, or we can pay an estimated $200 million to try and sound-proof schools.

Asthma, cancer, heart disease, stress, suicide and pregnancy complications all increase for those near airports or under the flight paths. We cannot place a dollar value on these health problems, but we figure they are worth fighting to prevent.

Estimated environmental mitigation for Sea-Tac communities is $2.6 billion by the year 2020. We have no environmental impact analysis: we will write a blank check thanks to Allegiant.

These facts seem unbelievable, don't they? Allegiant's proposal is sinister precisely because it seems innocent at first. The full impacts may take 10 or 20 years to be felt: greedy developers who want to profit from Allegiant's presence know this. George Bailey had an angel take him home after he saw Pottersville. Like other communities that learned too late, we will not be able to turn back.

Even if air service could bring some new (lower paying) jobs here, it would hardly begin to offset the massive costs involved. Our county officials should make any airline pay for the direct and indirect costs imposed on the community. Any other business must do the same thing. Why should homeowners subsidize an undesirable business?

Unfortunately, the Snohomish County Economic Development Council has failed to look at any of these liabilities. But why should they? The EDC treasurer is also the director of Paine Field, so they have a conflict of interest.

Finally, remember that Sea-Tac's third runway and Sound Transit's light rail to Sea-Tac will both come online next year. We can wait one more year for these multi-billion-dollar transportation solutions without trashing Snohomish County's residents in the meantime.

It is time to say: enough. Stop this nonsense. We must stop risking our quality of our life, our property values, our health and our very existence as a thriving community. Our costs can be zero if we simply say no to this proposal.

We thank our elected officials for fighting to uphold the contract made between the county and its communities regarding Paine Field: Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, County Council members Brian Sullivan and Mike Cooper, state Sen. Paull Shin, State Reps. Marko Liias and Mary Helen Roberts, mayors Joe Marine, Gary Haakenson and Don Gough, and the city councils of Mukilteo, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Woodway and Mountlake Terrace.

We will continue to fight for our community and elect leaders who uphold the moral, ethical, legal and economic basis for developing it over the past 30 years into the great place it is now.

A deal's a deal.



Gregory Hauth of Mukilteo is vice president of Save Our Communities, a citizens organization opposed to commercial air service at Paine Field.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA