Tagcommunity engagement(226)

The Port of Seattle is seeking public comments on a proposed environmental review of 31 Near-Term Projects at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), designed to improve efficiency, safety, and access as the Puget Sound region prepares for one million additional residents by 2035. The public comment period runs from October 21 through December 5, 2024, with four in-person meetings scheduled across Federal Way, Des Moines, Burien, and SeaTac. Comments can be submitted online, by email at samp@portseattle.org, by mail, or in person, and will be considered by the FAA and Port of Seattle in finalizing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Environmental Assessment.

The Duwamish River Parks Management Strategy, published by the Port of Seattle in October 2024, outlines a community-centered plan for improving and managing parks along the Duwamish River in the Seattle area. The strategy was developed with significant input from local community members and covers priorities such as new amenities, programming, partnerships, and branding to better serve Duwamish Valley residents. It also includes implementation steps and measures of success to guide future decision-making for the parks system.

This appendix summarizes the public and agency engagement activities conducted as part of the Environmental Assessment (EA) for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's Sustainable Airport Master Plan Near-Term Projects. Outreach included scoping meetings held in 2018 with seven agencies and four public sessions in surrounding cities, as well as advertisement in multiple languages across newspapers, email, and social media. Public meetings were scheduled in November 2024 at locations in Federal Way, Des Moines, Burien, and SeaTac, with a comment deadline of December 5, 2024.

The City of SeaTac held a Special Council Meeting on August 13, 2024, focused on North SeaTac Park, where staff presented an overview to inform potential Council action on the park's protection and preservation. The 90-minute session, led by directors from Community Economic Development, Finance, and Parks and Recreation, included public comment opportunities and an executive session. While not directly a noise policy document, the meeting reflects ongoing city efforts to safeguard green space in a community significantly affected by Seattle-Tacoma International Airport operations.

The Port of Seattle held public workshops in June 2024 to kick off an update to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Part 150 Noise Study, gathering community input from residents and other interested parties near the airport. The workshops were promoted through a wide range of online publications, social media, and community outreach channels, with materials available in multiple languages including Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, and Chinese. A follow-up workshop on Draft Noise Exposure Maps was scheduled for September–October 2025.

This FAA presentation covers Airport/Community Noise Roundtables and FAA support for addressing aircraft noise concerns near airports like Sea-Tac. It explains that effective roundtables build consensus among all affected communities, while the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) works through a large backlog of noise-reduction recommendations, each requiring months of technical feasibility review and environmental assessment. The FAA encourages communities to focus on the most actionable recommendations and to form alliances, emphasizing that collaborative, balanced solutions produce the best long-term outcomes.

This document contains a structured set of interview questions developed for a GAO study (project 103933) examining how NextGen flight path changes have affected local communities through increased aviation noise. The questions are directed at community groups and cover topics including FAA outreach efforts before and after implementation, equity concerns, the drivers of noise complaints, and whether any flight path modifications were sought or made following implementation. It aims to assess how effectively the FAA communicated with and involved communities in performance-based navigation (PBN) decisions.

This document provides an overview of the Aviation Impacted Communities Act, which establishes a formal process for communities affected by airport noise and flight paths. The process begins with the FAA notifying eligible communities of their 'designated community' status, then proceeds through board formation, meetings, studies, action plans, and ultimately grants for mitigation funds. A community qualifies as 'aviation impacted' if it is located no more than one mile from any commercial or cargo jet route at 3,000 feet or less above ground level.

This document outlines community and city grievances against the Port of Seattle regarding the StART (Sea-Tac Roundtable) stakeholder process, demanding greater transparency, accountability, and audio-visual recording of meetings. It criticizes the Port for making vague bad-faith allegations against unnamed citizen members, issuing one-sided press releases about StART's successes without member consent, and failing to respond to long-standing requests from neighboring cities like Burien and Des Moines. The document calls for charter reforms to prevent StART from being used as a marketing tool or as legal evidence of community engagement.