MUKILTEO — Mayor Jennifer Gregerson is asking residents here to voice their opposition to commercial air service at Paine Field by contacting Snohomish County officials.
The mayor’s urging follows County Council approval on Monday of a lease option with a New York company to develop a passenger terminal and pursue scheduled airline service.
The County Council approved the lease option by a 3-2 vote. That night, the Mukilteo City Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the county action.
In a news release emailed Friday, Gregerson urges Mukilteo residents to contact county Executive John Lovick and members of the County Council to express their opposition to passenger service at Paine Field.
“I am disappointed in the County Council decision to take a first step toward changing the role of Paine Field,” Gregerson said in a Friday news release.
“Paine Field best serves our region as a significant economic engine, through aerospace manufacturing, general aviation and aviation tourism,” she said. “It is a mistake to assume that commercial air service is a better economic development tool.”
Boeing has said that passenger service would not interfere with its operations. Paine Field already sees about 300 flights per day, including general aviation planes and many jetliners manufactured in the adjacent Boeing factory or flown there for maintenance at Aviation Technical Services (ATS).
Paine Field is in Everett but the airport adjoins Mukilteo, where city officials and residents have long opposed commercial air service.
The cities of Mukilteo and Edmonds and a residents’ group are among the plaintiffs in a 2013 federal lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration to block passenger service. That lawsuit is on hold pending an actual proposal.
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