The potential for Paine Field to be opened to commercial air traffic may be lying fallow, but the debate is not.
While no formal proposal has been forwarded to expand service at the Snohomish County-run general aviation airport following its mention in county studies as an economic development tool, opponents remain on the offensive.
Greg Hauth, vice president of Save Our Communities, the Mukilteo-based group that has led the opposition to passenger air traffic, continues to make presentations to city councils about what the group sees as the drawbacks of the idea.
Since last summer, Hauth has visited council meetings in Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Woodway, Mill Creek, Marysville and Mukilteo, giving a presentation that outlines the reasons for the group’s opposition.
Supporters of Paine Field expansion have been relatively quiet, but Hank Robinett, an Everett-based residential real estate developer, has voiced his support. He has not been shy about his belief that expansion would be good for the region’s economy with little or no damage to surrounding communities.
The following are excerpts from interviews with Hauth and Robinett regarding several aspects of the issue.
Noise
Robinett: “Their argument is dead on arrival. The noise levels (of jet airplanes) are going down constantly. You’re going to have some noise, but no more than you’re going to get from trains running through Edmonds and Mukilteo.”
Hauth: “The planes are getting quieter, that’s true. But those (quietest jets) will just be entering the fleet in ‘08. What you’ve got to look at is average fleet noise. Will the average fleet noise be diminishing that fast? No.”
Property values
Hauth: “People say there’s no studies on this issue but we found several. Property devaluation (around airports) ranged from a low of 10 percent to a high of 25 percent.”
Robinett: “I think when you have regional access to your airport, it enhances your property value. As a percentage of the operations out there, it (commercial flights) is just miniscule, and nobody will even notice.”
Jobs
Hauth: “What we think it’s going to do is bring in low-paying jobs that are basically service jobs. We think it would be at the cost of displacing high-wage jobs.”
Robinett: “We need to diversify and expand our economic base, our job base. We’ve got a wonderful facility, it’s underutilized. There’s much more money in commercial buildings and industrial buildings than in residential housing.”
Air capacity
Robinett: “It’s going to be demanded. Your economy caters toward that, your transportation centers toward that. Someone’s going to use (Paine Field), it’s a matter of time.”
Hauth: “Maybe a new international airport is needed somewhere in Western Washington, it could be in north Snohomish County, it could be Skagit County, it could be anywhere. They may need a new airport, we say not Paine Field.”
Past agreement to limit airport
Hauth: “It allowed a high-quality community to be built right up to a huge airfield.”
Robinett: “We’re operating Paine Field under a different scenario (with quieter aircraft) today than we did then.”
Strategy
Robinett: “If we sit and do nothing, there’s somebody going to come in who we don’t want, like a freight carrier.”
Hauth: “Once you start providing air service, you have to continue to do it on a nondiscriminatory basis. We might have control over the first guy going in, and we’ll have no control over anybody else.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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