TagSecond Airport(66)

In May 1994, the Puget Sound Regional Council announced that consultants had identified 12 potential sites for a major supplemental airport in the central Puget Sound region, narrowed down from an initial list of 25 candidates. The sites, stretching from Stanwood in the north to the Tanwax Lake area in Pierce County in the south, were deemed to have no flaws severe enough to rule them out from further consideration. The study was part of a broader effort to determine whether a supplemental airport could relieve pressure on Sea-Tac and potentially eliminate the need for a controversial third runway.

These documents relate to the Airport Alternative Committee's October 1992 meeting, which brought together cities, community organizations, and citizen groups concerned about aircraft noise around Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport. The committee evaluated criteria and requirements for addressing airport expansion, including minimizing noise impact on the largest number of people, maximizing aircraft and ground safety, and providing 750 operations capacity by the year 2020. Alternative airport sites such as Vancouver, Black Lake, Fort Lewis, Portland, McCord, Arlington, and SeaTac were also discussed.

A September 1992 internal memo from Doug Graves and Len Oebser to Rick Aramburu summarizes a site visit to the Toledo-Winlock area of Washington State as a potential location for a new replacement airport. The site was praised for its large size, proximity to the I-5 freeway midway between Seattle and Portland, access to Burlington Northern rail lines, and its sparsely populated surroundings, which would minimize noise and environmental impacts. However, drawbacks noted included its distance from major population centers such as Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, and Portland, which would require some form of mass rapid transit to serve the airport effectively.

A 1980 Seattle Times article reports that federal and state officials revived a proposal to build a new small-craft general-aviation airport on the Eastside of King County, with three potential sites identified near Snoqualmie Falls and Fall City. The FAA offered to fund up to 80% of the estimated $4.5 million construction cost, citing growing congestion at Sea-Tac Airport caused by the mixing of small private planes with large commercial jets. South King County residents, long burdened by airport noise and safety concerns, largely welcomed the idea, arguing that Eastside communities benefiting from aviation should share the responsibility for housing general-aviation facilities.