As the state committee established to find a complementary site for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport nears the end of its three-year process, a bill under consideration by the Legislature could scrap its work and start from scratch.
In other words, efforts to find a new site that meets Washington's increasing needs for passenger and freight transportation — which may include the Yakima Air Terminal — remain up in the air.
The state's Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission, tasked by the Legislature in 2019 to find a suitable site to help relieve pressure on an overcrowded Sea-Tac, has set two virtual information sessions for March 8 and 9 to inform the public of the latest developments.
The CACC also has tentatively scheduled a March 30 meeting to review its three finalist sites in Pierce and Thurston counties, as the June deadline for a final recommendation looms.
But House Bill 1791, proposed by House Transportation Committee Chair Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, and amended by 13th District Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, would replace the committee with another group and start the process over.
The bill replaces the CACC with a Commercial Aviation Work Group. This new work group, according to Dent's revised version of the bill, would file a first report that includes a list of possible sites eliminated from consideration due to conflict with the operations of Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
The two Pierce County sites and one Thurston County site face significant road blocks in terms of existing airspace traffic, their proximity to JBLM near Tacoma, and environmental and land use concerns voiced by area cities, counties and tribal governments, said Warren Hendrickson, CACC's acting chairman.
Hours of public testimony against the three sites and thousands of signatures on petitions opposing them also influenced Fey and the House Transportation Committee to potentially restart the siting process.
Dent, speaking with the Yakima Herald-Republic on Jan. 31, doubted any of the three finalist sites would be suitable for a regional airport.
"Things just didn't gel the way they should have (with CACC finalists). We have an extraordinary amount of people upset — and rightly so," Dent said.
The new work group proposed in the Fey-Dent bill would "evaluate the commercial aviation needs of Washington within the broader context of state transportation needs and the specific needs of Western Washington." This could include the expansion of existing aviation facilities and possible locations for new greenfield aviation facilities, the bill states.
A modified version of Fey's bill was approved by a 24-2 vote of the House Transportation Committee on Thursday.
Yakima city officials and City Council members believe their airport could be part of a solution and formally requested consideration "as the single preferred new airport location in the state" in a Jan. 3 letter.
The letter noted that Yakima's airport already has a 7,700-foot linear runway, which could be expanded to 13,000 linear feet with the purchase of approximately 1,000 acres of available agricultural land abutting the airport.
It also notes "ample land is available within a 5-mile radius of the airport, which is prime for developing long-term parking, rental cars, hotels and other industrial and commercial uses."
The CACC is hosting two public meetings on Zoom, from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, and from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Thursday, March 9, to share information and collect input. The same information presented at both meetings also is available via an online open house from March 1-22.
To view the online open house materials, visit wsdot.wa.gov/travel/aviation and click on the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission link. Opportunities to sign up for the March 8 and March 9 meetings also are available there.
