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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
An Excerpt from page B3 of the plan explaining how the above categories were determined
“Sustainability Categories
This Sustainability Management Plan was prepared under a grant from the FAA’s Sustainability Pilot Program. That program provided a template scope of services, which airports participating in the program tailored to their local needs. Included in that template scope is the term “categories.” In general, airports participating in the pilot program have adapted that term to represent interest areas or study area focus. Through coordination with the RAAC, the “categories” for consideration in this Sustainability Management Plan were selected. A category is an area of focus that has been identified as important for the Airport and community. Categories create a foundation to focus the development of specific sustainability goals/objectives and subsequent initiatives described later. Input from the RAAC helped identify important issues relating to the goals and objectives. For the tenants, issues identified included competitive lease rates and other financial measures to make the use of the Airport more attractive and affordable. Residential community members indicated that noise and visual impact of the Airport on the surrounding neighborhoods were of concern. Additional categories and issues will likely be addressed in the future as the Plan is updated. ”
Great! What next !!!! Yes we have lost great aviation entities in the last 10 years.
The first was Ryan Zulauf. He was the most communicative, qualified, experienced, and results oriented manager I have seen here. The reason he left was probably his salary.
The next loss in 2017 was the Gweduck that you have pointed out. The airport authority would not renew the lease for aviation legend Ben Ellison and make it worthwhile for him to work here. The airport condemned all the old buildings, building 1, 2, 3, 4 and building 350. After requiring him to go about an unreasonable demolition project first with hazmat removal, FAA, EPA plan etc. Instead after the buildings were condemned and displaced 30 plus aircraft and owners the Airport started using the condemned buildings for their own use. How hypocritical is that!!!
The next loss is the World Cruiser. If you remember for the last 25+years Bob Dempster and his team recreated the Seattle, A Douglas DWC replica of the Seattle, which just saw their 100th anniversary of that historic round the world flight. He built that airplane here assembling the components in various hangers and in the back of his coffee shop on Rainier Avenue. Bob and Diane lived above the airport on the west hill. He and his wife Diane Dempster, a now retired Boeing engineer, made this happen. But because of space availability that project was lost most likely from the airport authorities’ decisions.
Going back a step to the Ben Ellison Gweduck and the 350 building It wasn’t until I called the airport authority out on their use of the 350 building that I was able to lease it in 2022. It is interesting how then the hangers, buildings 2,3,4 and tarmac aircraft tiedown area was then taken control over by an existing tenant with personal ties to the airport authority, the buildings were demolished overnight on the weekend without hazmat disposal, FAA, or EPA approval. After they were removed a non FAA approved, poor quality blacktop, with no tiedowns was installed. Loss with un-approved FAA airport improvements! What’s wrong with this picture!!
UPDATE Council Meeting last night. Because the city attorney, airport authority, and backing by the city council have moved this eviction issue over to legal, with a quiet passing in a confusing council meeting. Almost as if it was surreptitiously planned. That means they did not negotiate with me to work this out. They decided to move this along to lawyers. Now it looks like legal attempts are going to be made to try to kick The Landing Gear Works off the airport. More JET and corporate space!!! I am going to stay and fight as long as I can, however it may have to be the old David and Goliath story.
The final straw is going to be if the incompetent authority demolishes the Renton Publicly owned historic tower and building that I have kept maintained.
To further clarify one of my points, we’ve always had some degree of private jet traffic, and I’m not suggesting that needs to change. A small amount of private jet traffic has always been part of the mix at our airport.
What I’m against, is tying up large sections of our property in private jet storage. While putting a jet in a hangar pays the rent, it does little to nothing to help our local economy. It does not generate any local jobs, taxable exports, or give residents a chance to learn to fly or otherwise engage in aviation. The hangar rent payment will be put in the airport enterprise fund. Meanwhile, homeowners around the airport will subsidize the jet storage, by paying taxes for police and fire service to protect the airport, and roads to get to and from it. They’ll also subsidize utilities and other infrastructure around the airport. And of course they’ll listen to the jet takeoff and land.
Here is a comparison. What if the Parks department announced that they had rented the Community Center to a millionaire for the next 40 years, so that the millionaire could hold exclusive noisy parties there for his friends in Seattle. Renton residents would no longer be allowed to use the Community Center, but the rent payments were going to cover the city’s mortgage on the building. Residents would of course have to pay for police, fire protection, and other costs for the building, but the parties were going to be awesome for the millionaire… so who could argue with such a creative use? Best of all, the Parks Department could use the rent money to grow their leadership staff and build nicer offices, while doing far less work. Would this be a good deal for residents?
The jet center is also a gas station for jets, supplying low-cost fuel for itinerant aircraft. No local taxes will be received, but owners in Texas, California, and Oregon will make money. Part of the spent fuel drifts down over Renton High and our neighborhoods as additional airport emissions with no local payback. It’s hard to see why this is a good deal for Renton.
Thank you for calling attention to this document. I am very interested to know how this comprehensive, thoughtful and expensive plan has been cast aside? Highly recommended reading!