Written by Our Airport has been the subject of a master-planning process for several years, and a number of airport options are currently on the table for community and council consideration. Among the options, is the creation of a corporate jet center.
I opposed this concept along with former-mayor Jesse Tanner many years ago, but have been more open-minded this time around due to the innovation of Very Light Jets(VLJs) along with quieter jets in general. I have been anxious for council and the public to get more information on this option, and I am pleased that a series of open houses is scheduled to gather input. Given the passion in the council mail, and email, on this topic, I also decided to post my own analysis of the situation, and get input from a sampling of the public on a Myspace blog. While the letters, open house data, and web-log input are still coming in, I can see already that the public understands this topic well enough to know that many, many people (and perhaps most) do not want a corporate jet center.
My Myspace Blog on this topic, and the comments I received back, are available by clicking here
Even if merely 20% of the public hated this idea, I don’t think we should do it. We don’t need to create divisiveness in our community over this issue, since there are many other ways that the airport can serve us. The problem with the jet center is once it is built, it would be impossible to get rid of if it created division and anger. Many of us remember a public backlash against a helicopter operator at the airport ten years ago, and we were counting the days until we could get them out of their lease….fortunately they had not built special facilities to accommodate them.
I have not spoken to any other council members about my recent position on the jet center, and we do not meet tomorrow night since it is a fifth Monday; council members will find out my view along with the public by reading this livejournal entry. (Council collegues, I hope none of you are too disappointed in my position on this, but this is how I see it.)
It sounds like a restaurant and new general aviation hangers would get pretty wide approval, so that is the direction I think we should head. Please feel free to leave comments below.
Best Wishes,
Randy
Admirable stand
I admire your taking a clear stand on this issue (regardless of what your stand is), thank you. I’m not sure whether or not the hanger/restaurant is a good approach or not, but seems better than the jet center.
I would like the City to not be intimidated by the FAA or over-estimate the FAA’s power. The FAA may object and take action if the City tried to shut down the airport completely, but nobody is suggesting that! Rather, the City should be able to control the airport’s direction and manage the 12 acres (being vacated by Boeing) in a way that best benefits the area. The FAA is NOT going to sue the City if the City chooses to use those 12 acres for something other than generating more noise and traffic. Let’s get some Boeing sub-contractors and service providers to lease the space. They’d love to be closer to their customer.
Re: Admirable stand
This comment shows good commonsense reasoning. It is very obvious that the real value of the airport to Renton is the Boeing Company. We should do everything reasonably possible to accommodate Boeing’s needs and Boeing has been a very good neighbor in Rention. Providing more convient space for Boeing’s subs and service providers would surely be to our citizens benefit and countinue the use of that airport space as it has been, without the need to seek new usages which will very likely be onerous (we all remember last August when Boeing Field was closed for repairs).
Renton Airport Useage/Future
There is no question that the real value of the airport to the community as a whole is the Boeing manufacturing activities and because of the tremendous economic benefits (jobs) we want Boeing to be here as long as they want. Boeing is a good neighbor and confine their just build airplane departures to daylight hours and do not fly over Mercer Island.
However, we must not stick our heads in the sand and completely ignore the possibility that Boeing may not be building airplanes in Renton at some future time. That means that a long term lease (25 years) as proposed for the jet center or a large investment of tax dollars for a jet center may not be prudent.
The small propeller powered airplanes do not require a long term commitment. Their noise is lower and a significant fact is they fly almost exclusively in daylight hours as opposed to the jets which operate at all hours both day AND night. Also, because these planes are lighter, carry much less fuel, and fly slower than jets any possible accidents will be much less dangerous for the community.