Ban on passenger flights unlikely

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, October 17, 2006

MUKILTEO – A ban on passenger air service at Paine Field – as many who live near the airport would like to see – would be a long shot at best, according to a new report.

Even discouraging commercial flights – as does a 1979 agreement between the county and the communities surrounding the airport – is an iffy proposition, the report concluded.

An advisory panel of elected officials and business leaders reviewing the future of the Snohomish County-run airport will discuss the report at a meeting today.

Panel members asked for the study in June to get a better idea of their influence on the issue. The report was prepared by the Denver law firm Kaplan, Kirsch and Rockwell.

The county is paying $18,000 plus expenses for the 32-page report and follow-up briefings for the panel. The money will come from the airport’s 2006 budget of $35.8 million.

The panel was charged with updating the 1979 agreement, and at least one member wants the panel to look at the larger issue of the airport accommodating the expansion of passenger service.

Panel member Tom Hoban supports limited commercial flights.

“We still have to get in the room and have a conversation about what we want to encourage and discourage,” he said. “It’s time to get that going.”

Most of the aircraft currently using the airport are jets operated by Boeing and Goodrich Aerospace, along with smaller private planes.

The expansion debate was sparked two years ago after county economic studies suggested commercial service would help the area’s economy, a view shared by many county business leaders.

Opponents, including the cities of Mukilteo, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Woodway, say the effects on neighborhoods would outweigh the benefits.

The report upholds what proponents and opponents of expansion have both acknowledged, that the 1979 agreement discouraging passenger service is not a legally binding document.

The report also said discouraging passenger flights by declining to build a passenger terminal or make road improvements, for example, might not be enough of a deterrent.

Also, it could result in a loss of federal money. Since 1969, Paine Field has received regular infusions of federal cash ranging from $19,000 to $4.6 million a year, mostly for projects such as runway and taxiway improvements. This year, the airport received $3.5 million for a new taxiway.

“Most authority for federal regulation of airports comes from the power of the purse,” the report said.

Still, the report “doesn’t say you can’t discourage,” said Greg Hauth, president of the Mukilteo-based Save Our Communities. “If we’re not required to build a terminal, then don’t build a terminal.”

Former Mukilteo Mayor Don Doran, the panel’s co-chairman, agreed.

“The county can discourage in a way that doesn’t violate federal law,” he said.

The report upholds a contention by expansion opponents that allowing a regular schedule of any type of passenger flights, such as regional, would require the airport to allow all types of flights, such as international ones.

Hoban said the scope of the airport’s service could be controlled by the discouragement measures cited in the report.

“Those seem to me just as valid as any sort of legal limit we could put in place,” he said.

Hoban is president of the pro-expansion Private Enterprise Coalition of Snohomish County.

The Denver firm’s report did leave the door open a crack for some long-shot legal measures. In one of these, the airport could refuse to obtain an operating certificate that would allow regularly scheduled passenger flights.

Again, to do so would risk the loss of federal money.

One airport tried its luck and won. Centennial Airport, a county airport near Denver, banned commercial flights and had its federal funding privileges yanked, according to the report.

But Congress stepped in, upheld the ban and restored the airport’s access to federal grants.

Such instances are rare, the report said.

Panel meets today

The panel reviewing guidelines for operations at Paine Field is scheduled to meet from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. today at the Everett Public Library, 2702 Hoyt Ave.

The group plans to discuss a legal brief on airport law prepared by the Denver law firm Kaplan, Kirsch and Rockwell.

The 12-member advisory panel includes elected officials and business leaders in Snohomish County.