TagVashon Island Fair Skies(21)
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2025-11-21Request for Waiver of Conflict of Interest
Law firm Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman, Inc. sent this November 2025 letter to the cities of Burien, Des Moines, and SeaTac, Washington, along with Vashon Island Fair Skies, Inc., requesting their consent to be represented together in legal challenges against the FAA's environmental approval of near-term construction projects at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The firm explains that while a potential conflict of interest exists in representing multiple clients simultaneously, all parties currently share a common goal of contesting the FAA's Finding of No Significant Impact related to increased aviation noise. The letter outlines the conditions of the joint representation, including fee-sharing arrangements, attorney-client privilege limitations, and procedures the firm will follow if the clients' interests diverge. -
2025-11-21Waiver of Conflict
The cities of Burien, Des Moines, and SeaTac, Washington signed a conflict waiver on November 21, 2025, acknowledging that their legal interests may potentially conflict with those of Vashon Island Fair Skies, while all being represented by the same law firm, Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman, Inc. The waiver relates to a legal challenge — a Petition for Review — of the FAA's Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision for the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) Near-Term Projects at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. All three cities knowingly consented to the concurrent representation and to legal fees being paid by a third party on their behalf. -
2025-11-21
Waiver of Conflict
The cities of Burien, Des Moines, and SeaTac, Washington signed a conflict waiver on November 21, 2025, acknowledging that their legal interests may potentially conflict with those of Vashon Island Fair Skies, while all being represented by the same law firm, Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman, Inc. The waiver relates to a legal challenge — a Petition for Review — of the FAA's Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision for the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) Near-Term Projects at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. All three cities knowingly consented to the concurrent representation and to legal fees being paid by a third party on their behalf. -
2025-11-21Waiver of Conflict
This document is a Waiver of Conflict signed by the cities of Burien, Des Moines, and SeaTac, Washington, acknowledging that their legal interests may potentially conflict with those of Vashon Island Fair Skies while being jointly represented by the law firm Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman, Inc. The three cities voluntarily consent to this shared legal representation in connection with a formal challenge to the FAA's environmental review decision regarding near-term construction projects outlined in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP). The cities also acknowledge they were advised of their right to seek independent legal counsel before signing the waiver. -
2025-11-21Petition for Review of Agency Order: Vashon Island Fair Skies v. Federal Aviation Administration
Vashon Island Fair Skies (VIFS), a Washington nonprofit representing residents affected by aircraft noise, has filed a petition in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a September 2025 FAA decision approving near-term expansion projects at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The group argues that the FAA's environmental review failed to adequately address the significant noise impacts on Vashon and Maury Islands resulting from concentrated, low-altitude flight paths introduced under the FAA's NextGen navigation program. VIFS has been actively opposing these flight path changes since 2018, when new Performance-Based Navigation procedures began routing more aircraft directly over the islands at lower altitudes. -
2025-11-21
Waiver of Conflict
This document is a Waiver of Conflict signed by the cities of Burien, Des Moines, and SeaTac, Washington, acknowledging that their legal interests may potentially conflict with those of Vashon Island Fair Skies while being jointly represented by the law firm Leech Tishman Nelson Hardiman, Inc. The three cities voluntarily consent to this shared legal representation in connection with a formal challenge to the FAA's environmental review decision regarding near-term construction projects outlined in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP). The cities also acknowledge they were advised of their right to seek independent legal counsel before signing the waiver. -
2023-09-27Comments on the FAA’s Noise Policy Review
Written comments submitted by Vashon Island Fair Skies to the FAA regarding noise policy review, focusing on ambient noise considerations and challenges in modeling airframe noise generation for aircraft arrivals. The document criticizes the current DNL metric and discusses technical issues with Sound Exposure Level calculations and airframe noise modeling. -
2020-07-22Letter From Vashon Island Fair Skies to City of Sea-Tac Requesting Lobbying Support for Port Of Seattle Noise Monitor Raw Data Retention
Vashon Island Fair Skies, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, wrote to the SeaTac City Council in July 2020 requesting help pressuring the Port of Seattle to retain raw second-by-second data from its 24 airport noise monitors, which vendor L3Harris currently purges after processing. The letter argues this raw data is essential for accurate noise analysis, demonstrating with December 2019 monitor data that high background noise at some sites causes the processing software to miss many actual aircraft overflight events. The group asks the city to urge the Port to make a simple procedural change — either downloading the data itself or requiring L3Harris to deliver it — noting the storage requirement is a modest ~62 MB per monitor per month. -
2019-08-01Sea-Tac August 2019 Noise Complaints (Vashon Island Fair Skies)
A color-coded map showing complaint data by ZIP code in the SeaTac area for August 2019. The map displays different complaint volume ranges from 1-51 complaints (green) to over 13,000 complaints (red), with ZIP code 98070 showing the highest complaint levels in red. -
2017-11-05The Noise Impact of the FAA’s NextGen Program on Vashon Island
This November 2017 presentation by David Goebel examines how the FAA's NextGen modernization program—specifically the new 'HAWKZ' RNAV flight procedure—has increased aircraft noise over Vashon Island, located west of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It explains why so many arriving flights are routed over the island despite SeaTac's runways running north-south, compares the old radar-based approach with the new GPS-guided one, and discusses the real-world altitude impacts residents have experienced. The presentation also covers community response options and what other affected neighborhoods have done to push back against similar NextGen-related noise increases.