The Gweduck (pronounced “gooey duck” ) is a Renton-built, Renton-designed amphibious, highly-advanced composite plane that burns a fraction of the fuel and is much quieter than earlier generations of similar planes. Building such a plane in Renton fit perfectly in our FAA-sponsored Sustainability Management plan. But a few years ago Renton Airport Management rejected a proposal to manufacture the plane here, and today Airport Management is evicting the Gweduck/Landing Gear Works engineering offices. The space appears to be targeted to even more private jets, dramatically out of step with our Airport Sustainability Management plan. Council is enabling it.

Twelve years ago Renton proudly stepped up to being one of the first airports in the country to create an FAA-sponsored Sustainability Management Plan.  We were eager to demonstrate leadership in environmental sustainability, livability, and aviation innovation, and we requested and received a $150,000 FAA grant to create the sustainability plan– one of the first ten cities in the country to do so.

Creating the plan took hard work and coordination with many stakeholders. It’s a detailed and thoughtful 41-page plan, that shows Renton’s early and enduring commitment to protecting our climate, our natural environment, and our community’s livability– the issues our leaders claim they embrace right now.

Graphic from Airport Sustainability Management Plan

The problem is, I’m left wondering if our current leaders even know the Airport Sustainability Plan exists. They should know, since long-standing airport tenants, residents, and RAAC members keep bringing it up.  And Airport Management should be showing how their decisions fit within it. Committing to this plan was a promise to both the community and the FAA.

Our Airport Management Team is currently bringing private jets to Renton and ejecting companies that improve efficiency of small planes. They seem eager to demolish the historic tower building, possibly to clear enough space for large private jets on the south-east corner of the airport, after leasing to a jet center on the west side a couple months ago.  Private jets create ten times as much carbon as airline seats and other forms of travel,  pay 2% of FAA expenses while generating 16 % of the flights, and are noisier than propeller driven aircraft.

Our City Council has not publicly questioned this unexpected heading. The Council appears to be boarding a rudderless plane, piloted by a crew that doesn’t know the approved flight plan.

The Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC), our FAA-supported Community Roundtable, is supposed to be meeting at least quarterly, and far more often when there are issues like these. But Airport Management is responsible for scheduling RAAC meetings, and they have held just a handful of RAAC meetings within the last few years; and these meetings  have been hindered by zoom technical issues.  By ignoring our sustainability plan and not regularly scheduling and supporting RAAC meetings, our leaders have rejected our best tools for ensuring we have a sustainable airport, and a livable environment, into the future.

I’m asking city leaders to study this plan, discuss it, and recommit to it.  This will include reinstating regular RAAC meetings, as called for in the plan.

The Airport Sustainability Plan is available here in the most recent form I could obtain by publication of this article.  The Plan is mentioned on the Renton City Website, but I could not find a link to the plan on the city’s website at the time of this writing.  So I’ve uploaded the final version as approved by RAAC in 2012, and it is available here.  If/when I acquire a different later version, I’ll add it to this blog entry.

Introductory page from Sustainability Management Plan

Goal summary from Airport Sustainability Management Plan

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