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| Future runway a headache for homeowners LEE PERLMAN THE MID-COUNTY MEMO As we speak, the Colwood Golf Club in the Cully neighborhood is seeking to change the rezoning for its 140 acres to industrial use. Few people in east Portland are paying attention or are concerned. Some think they should be. The Port of Portland has long been interested in acquiring the northern 48 acres of this property, especially with an industrial designation, and adding it to Portland International Airport. This would allow it to someday construct a third runway, as called for in its 2000 master plan. Currently, most airplanes landing or taking off from PDX fly along the Columbia River corridor, where they have the least possible impact on residential areas below. To avoid collisions, planes taking off from a third runway would fly in a diagonal route to the southeast, having a progressively greater impact as they went. They would fly over much of residential northeast Portland, just miss the heart of Gateway, and go directly over downtown Gresham. Under this scenario, some of the area would fall within the 65 decibels Day-Night Level, a yearly average of noise. “This is the point at which they’re required by law to insulate your house,” said Fred Stovel, a former pilot and Rose City Park community activist. “They would need to provide air conditioning because you could never open your windows.” He added, “We don’t want to be accused of crying wolf, but we believe there are implications that may be harmful to the city’s interests in the long run. Northeast Portland could really get hammered.” “We” are, among others, the Concordia, Cully, Rose City Park and Roseway neighborhood associations, all of which have written letters of concern about the issue. It is not something that is likely to happen next month or even next year-the existing runways can accommodate 484,000 flights a year, and there are now just 300,000. However, Stovel and others fear that when the time comes, there would be little anyone outside the Port could do about it, since federal regulations pre-empt most local laws on airline operations. There are things the city could do and hasn’t, Stovel said. They do not necessarily need to give approval for new terminal facilities to serve an expanded airport. The city is also more than six months behind schedule to begin a scheduled update of the airport master plan. Chris Corich, the Port’s general manager for long range planning, acknowledged that they are interested in the Colwood property. “When land like that comes on the market, we’re certainly interested in buying it,” he said. This would be true even if the current ownership failed to get an industrial designation, he said, since ownership would ensure that the land would not be used for an incompatible use that would later have to be removed. “The nature of our business is that we do very long-range planning,” he said. However, Corich denied that the rezoning and ownership would give the Port a free hand. “A lot has to happen first,” he said. The National Environmental Policy Act would require the Port to write an Environmental Impact Statement first, and in that endeavor “the city and citizens would all have a say. The idea that if we buy the land there’s nothing between us and a third runway is not accurate at all.” This is technically true, Stovel countered, and the process would be long and expensive, but it is the Federal Aviation Administration that would pass on the completed effort. “I’d like them to show me a case where an EIS for airport expansion was rejected,” he said. Russell community activist Bonny McKnight concedes, “People out here aren’t as involved in this as they probably should be.” The Wilkes Community Group has discussed the issue, most recently in February, and even managed to bring an FAA representative, Laura Schneider, to a meeting. “She was wonderful,” Wilkes Chairman Ross Monn said. “She was down to earth and direct.” Schneider said the FAA and Port are actively working to decrease noise intrusion in residential areas by narrowing the approach corridor; new technology adopted by carriers such as Alaska and Horizon also helps. Further, under a Fly Quiet program, they plan to use the north runway exclusively after 10 p.m. to minimize the impact on Portland homes. However, she cautioned, air traffic controllers are still free to guide planes outside of these corridors if safety considerations warrant it. Wilkes resident Kerry Brown commented, “It won’t make much difference for Wilkes because we’re under the flight path now.” The existing south runway veers slightly to take in Wilkes. Regarding the third runway she said, “They weren’t going to discuss it, so I didn’t bother to bring it up.” |
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