Like a plague, they slipped into Barbara Maxwell’s neighborhood, rattling the windows. Pretty soon, they were making it hard to hear phone conversations. After a while, they were interrupting backyard barbecues
More and more jet planes, on their way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, cast their fleeting shadows over the North End.And Maxwell, now vice president of the Maple Leaf Community Council, started calling the Port of Seattle – which runs Sea-Tac – to complain. The overflights were caused by occasional overcrowding, the port told Maxwell when she first called in the summer of 1988. But since then, the crowding has worsened, with planes bunched up in the skies over Puget Sound, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. So last fall, the FAA proposed making the flight path over Maxwell’s house on Northeast 100th Street near Roosevelt Way Northeast a regular, permanent part of the Sea-Tac landing pattern. On days when the wind is from the south, the change would add about 100 planes per day – up to 120 in the tourist months of July and August – to the air above Northeast Seattle, said Temple Johnson, air traffic manager for the FAA’s Northwest Mountain Region. Under current circumstances during south winds, those planes usually fly westward across Bothell and north King County to join a line of planes over Puget Sound that approaches Sea-Tac over Elliott Bay and the Duwamish industrial area. It’s only at night and in bad weather that planes now use the track over Maxwell’s house, flying just east of Interstate 5 over northeast Seattle. But the FAA’s proposed change would allow two streams of planes to approach the airport simultaneously, making full use of Sea-Tac’s two parallel runways all the time and increasing hourly landings from 42 to 60. It would also increase safety by spacing planes farther apart in the approach patterns, the agency has contended. Basically, the FAA proposal moves 100 to 120 daily overflights from the skies above Elliott Bay, where they cause noise for the Queen Anne Hill and Magnolia neighborhoods, to northeast Seattle. The area where overflights would increase is north of Highway 520 and east of a line between Sea-Tac and Paine Field in south Snohomish County, Johnson said. On days with a north wind, when planes take off northward, a dozen or fewer additional northbound planes would pass over northeast Seattle as well, he said. Reaction to the FAA plan was sharp and swift. Members of a mediation committee working with the Port of Seattle, the FAA and others to reduce aircraft noise throughout the metropolitan area felt betrayed. They had been discussing such things as changes in airline schedules, night operations and incentives for the airlines to use quieter engines, but nothing with as much potential impact on Seattle neighborhoods as the proposed flight-path changes. The FAA, however, didn’t inform the committee until October that the agency intended to unilaterally implement the large-scale changes in takeoff and landing patterns at the airport, essentially avoiding the mediation process on the issue.
The FAA told the mediation panel they could “tweak” the proposal, known as the Four Post plan, but in all essential parts it was to go into effect this month, said Paul Purcell, a Beacon Hill resident who represents city communities at the mediation table. The FAA move effectively doubles the capacity of Sea-Tac, said Purcell, because planes will be able to land simultaneously on the airport’s two parallel north-south runways. It also potentially doubles the noise with no community comment on the decision, he said.
The mediation committee members, Purcell and John Musgrave of West Seattle, along with other community representatives quickly sought help from the City Council. Last month, the council passed a resolution demanding the FAA do an environmental impact statement on the Four Post plan or face a lawsuit. And, Don Logan of Roanoke Park heard plenty of support when at a recent community forum with Mayor Norm Rice he called the FAA plan “a major assault on Seattle.” Neighborhoods from Lake City to Laurelhurst and Capitol Hill put on their earplugs and got out pens and paper, the weapons of protest and delay. The FAA and federal elected officials have been bombarded by letters from the North Seattle District Council and its member community groups, said Jack Remick of Maple Leaf. “Our general feeling is that the FAA is acting to increase (airport) capacity without really much regard to either environmental or safety factors,” Remick said. The communities have stressed the danger of a potential crash with the planes approaching at low altitudes over heavily populated areas rather than over the Sound, he said. Purcell, whose Beacon Hill neighborhood will continue to reverberate under 270 south-wind approach flights daily whether the FAA changes the landing pattern or not, thinks the Puget Sound area should develop another airport. Alternatives for new facilities, said Purcell, might even include support for a proposal now before the Legislature for a so-called “wayport” at Moses Lake, which would be connected to the west side of the mountains by a 300-mph train.
The noise mediation committee was formed by the Port of Seattle in 1988. Purcell and Musgrave represent a caucus of communities to the north and northwest of the airport – mostly city neighborhoods. Other members of the committee represent the port, the FAA, airlines, airport users and community caucuses from the south-southwest, Eastside, Pierce and Kitsap counties, as well as communities close to the airport. About the time the mediation process was getting started, the FAA was getting ready to implement flight path changes, such as those now proposed in the Four Post plan, Temple Johnson of the FAA said. Awaiting the end of mediation, the agency delayed revealing its plans. But the mediation process continued for longer than the FAA was willing to accept. “The problems began with the glacierlike pace” of the mediation, said Johnson. He said the mediation has now run nearly six months longer than first expected, with no end in sight. During that time, takeoffs and landings at Sea-Tac have grown by approximately 25,000 annually. Total arrivals and departures from the airport are expected to increase from fewer than 313,000 annually less than two years ago to about 337,000 this year, Johnson said. Getting more efficient and safer approach and departure patterns in effect before the peak period in the summer of 1990 meant the FAA could not wait for the end of mediation, Johnson said. Not every Seattle neighborhood is upset by the proposed change.Magnolia and Queen Anne will see a reduction in overflights and some residents there think the FAA has a good idea. Kirk Robbins of the Queen Anne Community Council said his group likely “generally would favor” the FAA plan. Janet Anderson of Magnolia said the approach over Puget Sound and Elliott Bay would be best for everybody, if the airlines would just stick to it. Many planes cut the corner over Magnolia, she said, also washing the Queen Anne neighborhood with noise. Given that problem, the Four Post plan as proposed might be the fairest thing, redistributing the planes over more neighborhoods, she said.
Presently, the FAA is conducting an environmental assessment of the Four Post plan. After the assessment, the agency will decide if it will do a full environmental impact statement. The draft environmental assessment shows no increase in noise levels as a result of the proposed changes, but evaluates only communities close to the airport. Noise annoying residents in University District, Maple Leaf or Lake City hasn’t been considered in the assessment. Compared to the airport area, the FAA’s Johnson thinks the noise problem won’t be as significant in those communities. “They’ll probably see more planes, I don’t know if they’ll hear them,” he said. But Purcell sees and hears things differently. “It really is a quality of life issue for Seattle,” said Purcell, of Beacon Hill. Flights have increased by 10 to 15 percent annually for the past 15 years with no end in sight, he said. Without action, “we can spend the next 20 years listening to airplane noise grow over our heads,” he said. Hearing set — The Federal Aviation Administration will hold an environmental assessment hearing on its proposed changes in Sea-Tac airport flight patterns Wednesday, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Cleveland High School, 5511 15th Ave. S. More noise for northeast Seattle Between 100 to 120 planes arriving from the east, which not loop westward to approach Sea-Tac airport over Puget Sound and Elliott Bay, would instead turn south over northeast Seattle to approach the airport roughly over Interlake 5, bringing potential noise problems to the neighborhoods from Lake City to Laurelhurst and Capitol Hill
ROD MAR / SEATTLE TIMES: RESIDENTS THROUGHOUT PUGET SOUND, AS IN THIS COMMUNITY NEAR THE SEATTLE-TACOMA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, ARE CONCERNED ABOUT PROPOSED FIGHT PATH CHANGES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON NEIGHBORHOODS.BO HOK CLINE / SEATTLE TIMES: SOUTHBOUND ARRIVALS (TEXT OF MAP SEE END OF TEXT