Dear Friends,

Legislation, be it local, or at the state and federal levels via ordinances, rule-making or executive orders, seems to be never ending. Getting informed is a challenge. I have yet to receive an unsolicited notice or update on the proposed airport locations. The purpose of this email is to recap what I know so far. There isn’t much new information to date.
 
Last Monday evening (17^th), I stopped by a well-attended meeting of local property owners, mostly from the Graham/Eatonville/Roy areas. It was organized by a concerned citizen (thank you Dr. SW) who spent hours making phone calls, posting notices on social media and paid the fee to reserve a room at the Frontier Park Lodge. They gathered to discuss how they could best mobilize to notify the people of the airport proposals. They also brainstormed on how best to inform the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) and their elected officials that their property, homes and families were more valuable to society than an airport, not to mention the stress it would cause on the environmental resources we all maintain to support life.  

All attendees were engaged and motivated. The passion was unstoppable. It is very difficult to pinpoint what the Commission will do in the process at this stage in the planning. We do know that the last report tendered to the state included the two Pierce County sites.
 
The Commission is tentatively scheduled to meet again in February. Our goal for them is to reevaluate the Pierce County sites and remove them from consideration. I have received many phone calls and emails supporting that goal. Land use and permitting falls under the jurisdiction of the County, not site selection.
 
SSB 5370 is the legislation that created the CACC and determined its responsibilities. The Bill Report makes the case for needing additional capacity. Confusing is the definition of “primary commercial aviation facility”. It says…Options for a new primary commercial aviation facility may include expansion of an existing airport facility. Nowhere in the legislation or report could I find the term “greenfield” mentioned. The legislation also forbids consideration of locations in counties with a population of over 2 million people.
 
The legislative hearings, Senate and House, focused on the need for a future site. The most recent report by the CACC says:
 
Over the next several months, the Aviation System Plan (WASP) consultant will continue in-depth, technical analysis on these sites, as well as examine general aviation capacity needs. At this time, the Commission does not have enough technical data to provide a single preferred location recommendation. The data that emerges will inform the Commission’s deliberations, and the Commission will report back to the legislature recommendations based on the information obtained.
 
That statement tells me the CACC was expected to make recommendations with incomplete information. In the meantime, many organizations are composing letters for the CACC.  I urge you to sign up for future CACC notifications here. If you have spare time, the House hearing linked above has interesting testimony beginning at the 7-minute mark. If you want to learn what other compelling policies the state passed, watch the Senate hearing linked above. That hearing didn’t go into depth, but I learned about digital license plates, plans for red light cameras and more. Keep in mind those hearings were in 2019. I’m not a fan of policies that require total surveillance or tracking humans. More on that in a future e-letter.
 
We are still working to schedule a presentation from the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission. I shall inform you of the date when it gets scheduled. Please direct your comments and organizational letters to [email protected] and Cc my office ([email protected]) for my records to validate our stance to oppose the proposal. You may or may not get responses due to the volume of emails. June 15, 2023, is the scheduled date for the Commission to present their final site selection to the State.
 
As an FYI, I came across a rather handy website: Contact Your Elected Leaders.

Grateful for you!