+ G 4 The Seattle Times Wednesday, April 9, 1980 Proposal for airport on Eastside pops up again by Charles Brown Times suburban reporter EAST KING COUNTY - After more than a year o[ dormancy, the specter of a new small-craft airport somewhere on the East- side has surfaced again. Revived by the Federal Avi- ation Administration, the airport proposal is being looked at by the state Department of Transporta- tion's aeronautics division, county planners and Port of Seattle officials. A Washington Airport Systems Plan has determined a need for eight new general-aviation air- ports in the Puget Sound region by the year 2000. And from the state's point of view, one of those airports is need- ed on the Eastside to fill a de- mand for aviation facilities, caused in part by closure of the Bellevue Airfield and encroach· ment on other regional airports. William H. Hamilton, assistant secretary for state aeronautics, emphasized that a new airport on the Eastside is still in the proposal stage. · "Nothing is concrete yet," he said. "We are merely talking in concepts at this point." He also acknowledged that'the airport idea has received an un- friendly reception by some East- side residents, who "do not want to see an airport in their backyards." Hamilton and representatives from the F.A.A., county and Pmt have fonned a task force to deter- mine how the airport could be im· plememed and financed, and where it ultimately shou!d be located. Out of an area which reaches…Open full document
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“Nobody WANTS an airport in his backyard,” said Mayor Lorraine Hine of Des Moines. “But in South King Couniy we’ve always lived in the shadow of airports and planes and there seem to be more planes all the time.” Mayor Hine said the smaller general-aviation planes are be-coming a real hazard competing for air space with the large jets. “Every additional plane coming into or out of Sea-Tac increases the chances of a San Diego-style collision of a small plane and a large jet.”