The Airport Communities Podcast
Dear City Managers,
This is a letter is to you and not to residents or the politicians you report to. If there is a long-term solution to life under the flight path, it may be advocated for by those people, but to succeed, it will be negotiated, implemented, and managed by you.
Solutions to seemingly intractable problems like airport impacts seem hard to find. Except when they are already there, hiding in plain sight.
People who visit our website are often confused by our main image, which is not typical. Where are the unhappy people complaining about aircraft noise?
The image looks like a comp plan because that is what it is: the Sea-Tac Communities Plan of 1976, co-signed by the Port of Seattle and King County.
The STCP was supposed to be that long-term solution. The bargain, in fact the Port of Seattle’s slogan, was simple, “As we do better, you’ll do better.”
Why is it now almost completely forgotten, except perhaps as a very expensive set of ‘property buyouts’?
Over and over, it has been the case that community members can play a crucial role in creating a plan as important as the STCP. Electeds are essential in funding it. But neither can keep it from becoming a very expensive ‘one and done’. And now, we’ve reverted to exactly the scenario the STCP was intended to solve.
Its goals, and its framework are even more useful today. But to fulfill the original promise, we need today what did not insist on 50 years ago: a long-term commitment to airport community planning–something only professionals can provide.
This is the first in a series of episodes on the Plan, why it failed, and why its approach was always the right approach.
| Expansion | Capital cost | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Second Runway program (1967–73) | ~$175M (1973 $) | $100M (buyouts & soundproofing - 1976–86) |
| Third Runway (2008) | ~$1.1B | >$500M ($300M sound insulation + $150M school construction + $110M water quality) |
| SAMP (in planning) | ~$5.5B (and rising) | ~$18M (PFAS + SIRRPP + SKCPF + SeaTac ILA) |
Topics
-
- Historylink – Boeing Bust/Second Runway (1966-1973)
- The Sea-Tac Communities Plan (1976)
- The Highline Community Plan (1977)
- Ep #3: It’s a Parking Lot
- Ep #4: The Westside Hilltop Survival Committee
- Ep #17 The Airport Discount
- SAMP Four City ILA (2018)
- Highline Water District/Port of Seattle Settlement
- SAMP EA Chapter #3 – Affected Environment
- 2025 Port of Seattle response to City of Burien on SIRRPP
- 2026 Part 150 Technical Review Committee Meeting #6
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