Mukilteo council plans airport battle

Published 10:45 pm Sunday, August 19, 2007

Legal advice and community outreach appear to be the first areas in which Mukilteo will invest to head off any future plans for air passenger service at Paine Field.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss tonight how to spend part of a $250,000 war chest it has set aside for possible battles over use of the airport.

Passenger service has not been proposed for the Snohomish County-owned airport. But an Everett-based business group, the Private Enterprise Coalition of Snohomish County, plans to spend $100,000 to promote passenger service there.

The group believes that commercial service would help the county’s economy. It recently started a Web site, www.flyfromeverett.org, to trumpet the cause.

When the business group announced its promotion campaign last spring, Mukilteo countered by allocating $250,000 for yet-to-be-specified uses.

City officials and other opponents of passenger service contend commercial flights would degrade neighborhoods with noise and reduce property values. Mukilteo and the south county cities of Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Woodway have approved resolutions opposing commercial flights.

A committee made up of Mukilteo City Council members Marko Liias, Jennifer Gregerson and Lori Kaiser last week was wrapping up a strategy it will recommend to the full council, Liias said. They’ll likely suggest hiring an attorney to research what cities can do to stave off commercial flights, he said.

Last year, a Snohomish County panel created to update a 1970s agreement guiding use of Paine Field looked into airport law. It found that an airport operator can’t legally prevent airlines from using the airport for passenger flights but also is under no obligation to recruit airlines or pay for improvements to the airport or roads to make way for service.

A city can also pass land-use laws to make it difficult to expand an airport, airport law specialist Peter Kirsch of Denver told the county panel last fall.

Mukilteo should hire an attorney to further explore these avenues, Liias said – “to begin where (the panel) left off,” he said.

The leading residents’ group opposing commercial flights, Save Our Communities of Mukilteo, generally agrees with the strategy, president Greg Hauth said.

In addition, the group will recommend the city hire a land-use attorney who knows how to make full use of all the potential “speed bumps” in the process, Hauth said. These include changes to local and regional comprehensive plans, environmental reviews and landing fees.

“We’re going to remind the City Council of all those things,” Hauth said.

Liias said the city likely won’t spend all the money right away. Last year the county paid Kirsch’s law firm $18,000 plus expenses.

Public outreach, Liias said, could come in the form of asking residents what they know about the issue, and what perceptions and concerns they might have. He estimated it could be done for $10,000 to $20,000.

Mayor Joe Marine said a survey could help the city “get rid of some of the misconceptions that are out there,” he said.

The first of those, he said, is a false belief that “there’s nothing we can do.”

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.

Council meeting

The Mukilteo City Council is scheduled tonight to discuss strategy for opposing passenger flights at Paine Field. The meeting is7 p.m. at City Hall, 4480 Chennault Beach Road.