Draft Of Sunnyside Municipal Airport Layout Plan Available On-Line

The City of Sunnyside has published the draft airport layout plan on-line, which you can see here.

The report is lengthy, running about 153 pages, not including additional maps.  It covers the current status of airport facilities, as well as recommendations for planning over the next 20 years.  It is sure to be a tool that will get the attention of both the City Council, and the Planning Commission.  In addition, with this plan, the City will be able to request FAA grant funds.  Plans for airport expansion will almost certainly depend on a high level of grant funds being available, as the City is ill positioned to finance any new undertakings with current budget demands.

The plan assumes a ratio of one plane for every 1,000 residents.  Evaluating population trends, this means that in the next 20 years, we can expect about seven more planes to be based at the airport.  Construction of a single 8 plane hangar would exceed the expected demand between now and 2030.  This is, as was repeatedly stated in the report, “modest” expected growth.

Airport enthusiasts have spoken of the benefit of the local hospital being able to use the airport for medevac purposes.  There is some value to having this capability, but when we see the numbers, it is difficult to use this as a reason to expand the airport.  Currently, Sunnyside is seeing less than 20 medevac flights per year.  The minimum needed to justify airport expansion using this criteria, would be 500 per year.  That is not my opinion, this is what the City’s engineering consultants said in the report.

The plan does recommend expanding the airport, adding 578 feet of runway.  This would bring the total runway length to 4,000 feet.  This would help to potentially bring in more twin engine aircraft.  Potentially, airport demand would increase above what is projected by population growth figures.  In this event, airport facilities would need to be upgraded on a quicker schedule.  Of course, the potential also exists for airport demand to decrease in the next 20 years as well.  A careful cost / benefit analysis of each potential airport upgrade would be advisable, to ensure taxpayer subsidies to the airport do not become more of a burden to the City.

Even after expanding the runway, it would not be realistic to expect jet aircraft to visit Sunnyside’s airport often.  A small Learjet requires 4200 feet of runway length, which is about 200 more feet than the proposed expansion.  In addition, a fully loaded Learjet weighs in excess of 15,000 pounds, exceeding the current runway weight limitations.  This is for a small Learjet, you can completely forget trying to bring a larger jet aircraft in the next 20 years, if this plan is adopted.  Do not expect George Jetson, or anyone else, to be buzzing in and out with personal microjet aircraft in large numbers.  It is more realistic to think in terms of building out the facilities to service twin engine aircraft, or maybe even some turboprops.

Les Schwab and Wal-Mart are two business interests cited in the plan as commercial users of the airport.  If expanding the airport would be beneficial to their operations, perhaps the City could initiate some public-private partnerships to help finance the local matching funds needed to expand the runway, and perform other improvements recommended.  Total improvements recommended in the plan run about $7.9 million in 2008 dollars.  Assuming the federal grant money continues to be awarded at historic levels, the City’s share of the expense would be $433,761.  With expanding facilities, airport users should be willing to pay more of the cost over time.  If not, the upgrades may not be worth the extra expense of maintenance for taxpayers.

As a condition of accepting federal grant money, the City must “protect” the airport through planning land uses that are “compatible”.  Currently, the City does not have an airport overlay zone.  Further complicating matters, much of the land around the airport is not in the City.  Yakima County does have an applicable Airport Safety Overlay (ASO), but Sunnyside does not.  Runway expansion is dependent on the City annexing land east of the airport, and limiting land uses by residents in the Ray Road area.

Much of the land on East Edison Road, to the south of the airport is currently zoned Industrial.  City planners have stated this is preferable to residential development, based on guidance from WSDOT and the FAA.  The FAA is responsible for both regulating and PROMOTING aviation, so their recommendation is based on preferences, and not local needs.  I can’t imagine WSDOT promoting residential development either.  Still, these are guidelines and recommendations, not requirements.  It is worth noting that 100% of the cost of this plan was paid for by these two agencies.

Sunnyside zoning laws limit vertical heights to 60 feet in Industrial areas, and 30 feet in residential zones.  It would seem like if buildings presented a problem in the vicinity of an airport, you would use a zoning that keeps the height at a lower level, but that’s not what is being done.  In fact, the 60 foot tall buildings would only be an issue on the approaches to the runway, not on the sides (with a certain buffer for safety around the runway of course).  The argument that Industrial zoning is “safer” is not a valid one.  With buildings permitted at twice the height of housing, that argument is laughable.

In the interest of full disclosure, I currently rent land near the airport.  The land owner has offered to sell it to me, but with an uncertain process to develop it, I have not pursued the offer.  Other properties near the airport are for sale, with at least one being a bank foreclosure.  Without any certainty of being able to utilize the land for the housing that currently exists, they are not selling.  It is my sincere hope that the City Council will adopt a pro-growth attitude towards development.  The current approach is stifling potential growth.