Port staff have said there will be some form of listening session at the airport on July 9, in the same room that Port Commission meetings are held, and recorded, as are all Commission meetings. But thus far there has been no confirmation that any of the Commissioners will be in attendance.
We sent this today to urge the entire Commission to attend. To comply with state rules, that requires their staff to declare the event a Special Meeting of the Commission. That is a simple procedure, and it ensures that at least three Commissioners will attend to hear what the public has to say.
If you agree, please write the Commission.
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Commissioners,
Thank you for scheduling a public hearing for July 9, 2026. We ask that all of you plan to attend, and that the event be designated a Special Meeting of the Commission with the single agenda item of taking public comment on the SAMP NTP DEIS.
The Commission has long made it a practice to hold off-site meetings across the region. But it has been many years since you met as a whole with the airport communities themselves.
In every sense Sea-Tac Airport accounts for an outsized share of the Port’s impact to the region. The near-term SAMP projects represent as much potential new capacity as a new runway. But the absence of such a large and visible construction project has made it challenging for the public to grasp the magnitude of this proposal. The numbers tell the story more plainly: near-term SAMP projects alone are budgeted at over 20 times the initial budget of the Third Runway.
We understand that no project proceeds without Commission approval. But those decisions will be made over the course of several years. Typical Commission meetings always cover a wide range of business and the public is rarely afforded more than a few minutes on airport matters. Though the SAMP was first unveiled in 2016, and various pieces have been discussed, the July 9 event would be the first and only opportunity for the public to address the Commission on the full scope of what is being proposed.
Given the unprecedented scale of this expansion, it is appropriate for the Commission to sit as a full body, and provide adequate time to hear from your neighbors—the people who will be most affected by the SAMP for decades to come.
Sincerely,