Flights over Lake Forest Park?

Flights from Paine Field may overfly Lake Forest Park
Photo courtesy Paine Field

Paine Field commercial flights draws citizen, council interest

By Lauren Broudy, City of LFP

A presentation from Snohomish County about the Allegiant Air and Alaska Airlines request for commercial service from Paine Field drew more than 20 citizens to the May 9 City Council meeting. Lake Forest Park is approximately 9 miles directly south of the runway. For the past several months, comments and notes have trickled in from citizens worried that noise impacts from an increase in commercial jet traffic at Paine Field would have a negative effect on quality of life. 

However, the loudest message delivered by Paine Field Manager Dave Waggoner was that legal uses of airports are not only determined by federal law, but also -- in the case of Snohomish County’s Paine Field – by conditions contained in tens of millions in federal grants over several decades. This prevents Paine Field from discriminating against commercial airline carriers desiring to use Paine Field for flights.

The City Council made it a lively Q/A period by probing the facts offered about number of flights, prospective flight increases, how the flight patterns operate, the noise “footprint” of take-offs and landings, and the relative noise factor of the aircraft to be used by the two airlines. Mr. Waggoner and Peter Camp from the Snohomish County Executive’s office also agreed to go to another room and field questions from the interested citizens, which took approximately 90 minutes. Before the presenters left the Council Chambers, they noted to the Council that the comment period on the federal environmental checklist had ended, precluding Lake Forest Park from commenting or appealing it, but that the City of Mukilteo had appealed the impact.

The first few minutes of the citizens Q/A session were audio- tape recorded and the City and Paine Field plan to put it on their respective web sites. Several Councilmembers noted they would like a briefing on that session information before discussing any possible next steps. The slides and audio from the Paine Field presentation will be placed on the City website.

Slide Presentation 

Powerpoint Slide Presentation by Doug Waggoner

Audio Recording of City Council Presentation 

Audio Recording of Presentation to City Council

Audio Recording of Question and Answer Session outside of City Council Meeting, May 9, 2013 

Audio Recording of Q & A Session for Citizens outside of City Council Meeting