PORT ANGELES — A Port of Port Angeles proposal to remove eight city-owned trees, mostly from Lincoln Park, to lift a landing restriction on nearby William R. Fairchild International Airport will go before the City Council.
The Park, Recreation and Beautification Commission voted unanimously Thursday night to recommend the plan to the council after eight residents spoke in favor of it.
City Manager Dan McKeen said Friday that council members likely will be asked to authorize the port proposal at a joint public meeting with port commissioners next month.
The meeting has been tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. June 2 in council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., McKeen said.
Council members and port commissioners also are expected at the meeting to develop a memorandum of agreement on how to address the larger issue of hundreds of Lincoln Park trees limiting Fairchild runway use.
The public will get a chance to comment at the meeting, McKeen added, though he said “the public comment will be limited to the subject of the special meeting.”
FAA restriction
Jerry Ludke, the port’s airport and marinas manager, said the port is seeking to remove the eight trees to lift a Federal Aviation Administration restriction enacted April 28 against planes using “instrument approaches” at night to land at the port-owned Fairchild airport’s runway 26.
The airport sits just west of the city-owned, 147-acre Lincoln Park.
Resident Bob Hicks told the parks panel Thursday that the restriction on the airport has the potential to drastically limit its use by such companies as Rite Bros. Aviation, Kenmore Air, FedEx and the United Parcel Service.
“This is an absolutely essential city utility that must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
Ludke said the FAA issued the restriction because the trees at Lincoln Park were encroaching into the protected airspace leading into runway 26.
The FAA’s concerns about the hundreds of obstructing trees in the park had already led to reducing the usable amount of runway 26 from 6,350 to 5,000 feet, he said.
Dava McNutt told parks commissioners she was concerned the nighttime limitations also would limit access to potentially life-saving medical emergency plane flights into the airport.
“We are all airport users,” she said.
Eight trees
The recent port proposal would allow the removal of seven trees standing in the western portion of Lincoln Park, just west of the off-leash dog park. An eighth stands in city property north of the Lincoln Park ball fields.
Ludke said instrument approaches rely on pre-approved flight paths. They lay out for the pilot a known safe path into an airport.
They differ from visual approaches, in which the pilot more or less chooses his or her own path into the airport, he said.
Daytime instrument approaches to runway 26 are not restricted, Ludke said. Neither are nighttime visual approaches.
The current restriction against nighttime instrument approaches would likely limit the most flights in fall and winter when the sun sets at about 5 p.m. or earlier, Ludke said, rather than in spring and summer when the days are longer.
Corey Delikat, the city’s parks and recreations director, said city crews will work with the port to determine how best to remove the trees if the plan is ultimately approved.
“We’ll evaluate each of the trees to be sure that they’re taken down properly and surrounding ground is re-established,” Delikat said.
About 350 runway-obstructing trees were cut down in Lincoln Park in 2008, mostly in a former campground.
Discussions about potentially cutting hundreds more trees had been greeted by objections from protesters.
No one objected at the Thursday meeting to the proposal to remove eight city-owned trees.
________
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
