It costs no more to do it right.
At the July 14, 2025 Burien City Council meeting Councilmember Linda Akey made this proposal.
I would like to request the city council take two actions. One, authorize city staff to work on a letter to the Port of Seattle requesting an end to the Port Package program and/or express concern with the lack of effectiveness of the Port Package program. And two, authorize city staff to reach out to other cities about joining in signing on to such a letter and/or other collaborative efforts exploring communications with the Port of Seattle on impacts and resolutions for recognizing the impacts on Burien and the surrounding cities.
At the end of the meeting, the Council again discussed the issue and we heard two important clarifications from Deputy Mayor Sarah Moore:
…I was going to say [the] Burien Airport Committee has some recommended language that could be shared directing the City Manager to work with staff on a letter to abandon its current replacement program and in consultation with its Stakeholder Advisory Roundtable develop a viable program that will tend to every homeowner in need of a Port Package and I could send that if that is helpful…
Where things get tricky.
We appreciate the City Council showing a willingness to take action that other cities have not. However, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, it is a lack of specificity and clear commitment that has sabotaged these efforts over and over. And it costs nothing more to do it right.
Last year the Port was able to roll out the terrible Port Package update program known as the SIRRPP precisely because everyone seemed thrilled just to get something. Anything. Over our strenuous objections, Burien, Des Moines, SeaTac, StART members, and sadly also the BAC, let them get away with what they offered as ‘progress’, rather than simply insisting they do it right. This was either grossly naive or more of the virtue signaling we’ve come to expect from local electeds.
We are enthusiastic to support Burien’s efforts, but we once again have those same concerns. For example, StART’s operational rules preclude it from taking action on issues like this. That action is also completely unnecessary. 99% of sound insulated properties are in Burien, Des Moines and SeaTac. Those governments already have all the tools they need to solve the problem. Either the Burien City Council knows these things, or they don’t. Either is concerning.
Over the decades, on issues where there has been real commitment, the results have tended to be very good – including dramatic water quality improvements, construction at Highline Schools, North SeaTac Park — all projects developed by experts in the community you don’t know about, even though we all now take their work for granted.
However, every time we cut corners, leave the details ‘TBD’, the results are poor.
We understand that many people read our pull quotes “Follow the San Francisco International Airport model!” and stop reading. But we promote these ‘simple’ ideas after years of research. In the case of sound insulation, we talked with all the principles, and then visited home owners around SFO to really learn how their program worked, including what they got wrong, and how to avoid pushback from the Port.
But we’ve never intended people to think these issues are so simple that anyone can do it. If anyone could do it, they would have.
STNI has done that work. That is the only thing the Port is afraid of – people who know what they are talking about and cannot be hoodwinked. What they much prefer are people who will take whatever they are handed.
The Port has no track record of going beyond the letter of their agreements, and we never expect it. Sound insulation is justice, but still it is millions of dollars. If we do not create serious proposals, we will always get programs like the SIRRPP. Your electeds should care about more than saying “we made progress!” It costs nothing more to do it right.
The Burien City Council is on holiday until September. The new Des Moines Aviation Commission will have its inaugural meeting August 11. Hopefully everyone can get a copy of that letter, soon.