Want to ruin a rural Pierce County community? Build a new Puget Sound airport there
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New airport in Pierce County?
Two sites in Pierce County, south of Tacoma, will be analyzed as a site for new passenger, cargo flight operations by 2040 to accommodate Sea-Tac overflow.
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Let’s hope the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission is just doing its homework. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the commission, which was convened by the state legislature in 2019 and tasked with identifying a potential home for a new major regional airport, is simply being thorough and leaving no stone unturned.
Because if the commission is serious about the possibility of recommending an airport be built in one of two rural Pierce County locations — and an airport comes to fruition — one of those communities, as we know it, is as good as gone.
As The News Tribune’s Shea Johnson reported, last week the 15-member coordinating commission whittled down its list of potential locations for a new airport to just four — with Pierce County accounting for half. One is an undeveloped swath of land south of Graham. The other is a similar “greenfield” south of South Creek, near where state Routes 702 and 7 meet.
In addition to the two Pierce County locations, the commission is also considering a six-mile chunk of Thurston County, southeast of East Olympia, as well as the possibility of expanding Paine Field in Snohomish County. As someone who knows absolutely nothing about what goes into choosing a location for a new airport or the complexities involved, I’ll just say what I can only assume most long-time Pierce County residents are thinking:
Please, anywhere but here.
Seriously. While it can be satisfying to vilify NIMBYs when they oppose things like high rises and affordable housing projects in the city, the impact of a new airport in rural Pierce County would be tremendous, and not in a good way. Local elected officials and responsible growth champions often talk about the need for greater urban density so we can preserve the wide-open spaces that make Pierce County special. Building a new airport in the hinterland would obliterate those plans.
Think, for a moment, about what’s being proposed — to meet the undeniable needs of an exploding region. We’re not talking about a small airport here, like Thun Field on South Hill or the Tacoma Narrows Airport near Gig Harbor. We’re talking about a new Sea-Tac airport: a facility designed to ease the burden on the Sea-Tac we already have, a new airport that could see millions of commercial passengers annually, in addition to significant cargo traffic, potentially constructed by 2040.
A project of that size, simply put, will be a game changer wherever it’s built — particularly if it’s built in any of the three locations where construction would start from the ground up. As Johnson reported, the Pierce County locations being considered are seen as attractive options, in large part because both, it’s believed, could serve roughly 20 million passengers a year. That’s a terrifying prospect.
With a recommendation by the coordinating commission expected to be made by June, some Pierce County elected officials are already voicing their concerns — hopefully with more to follow. Pierce County Council member Amy Cruver said she doesn’t believe a new airport is “feasible” in the community she represents, while her predecessor on the council and current state Senator Jim McCune told me “It would be nice to have some new jobs,” sure, but a new airport would “really damage the lifestyle” his constituents enjoy.
Meanwhile, State Rep. J.T. Wilcox and Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier are taking a more measured approach, at least so far, but both clearly harbor skepticism. Each leader told The News Tribune that an airport could bring job growth and economic benefits, while also acknowledging that the toll of such a project could easily outweigh the good.
Wilcox indicated he would wait and learn more before taking “an absolute position” on the subject. But in the same interview, he also perfectly articulated what’s at stake.
“The impact of something like this I think would change the character of the area forever,” Wilcox said.
He’s exactly right. No doubt about it.
This story was originally published September 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Want to ruin a rural Pierce County community? Build a new Puget Sound airport there."
