[EDITORโS NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, submitted by a verified resident. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of South King Media, nor its staff:]
Dear Port of Seattle Commissioners Ryan Calkins, Sam Cho, Fred Felleman, Toshiko Hasegawa, and Hamdi Mohamed, as well as the Port of Seattle, City of Seattle, King County, WA, Washington State and surrounding area personnel, officials and affiliated companies, departments and individuals/groups of interest.
I write to you today to ask that the Port of Seattle keep North SeaTac Park of City of SeaTac, WA whole and preserve critical forest and green space infrastructure on Port-owned land in our near-airport community.
Please don’t destroy this park and develop on it. So many people count on the park not only for their health provided by the oxygen of the trees, but also by the general enjoyment of the park and the community that it creates with everyone.
I personally go to the park 4-5 times a week with my dog and we enjoy walking in the beautiful trails. Please don’t take this away from us.
Please, I beg of you, do not destroy this land. Do not take it away from us, the people who live here. This would be an atrocity. This area and its people have already been victims of stolen land. Like the Duwamish natives whose land was stolen, the, what your website calls a “special purpose government” is again going to steal land away from its people and this is wrong.
Please.. This park serves a special purpose. Please live up to your name which is authorized by the State of Washington and keep your agency and this park special. I believe what you are suggesting is a wrongdoing and urge you to reconsider this horrible plan of yours to destroy nature.
There are so many people from all walks of life that come here. Sports players, families, cyclists, exercisers, happy people, lonely people, people is search for nature within the city, people in search for clean air in the city, pets, family members, friends, and many others who love this park.
Myself and thousands of others are uniting together.
There is one group in particular that is very passionate about this issue. They are DEFENDERS OF NORTH SEATAC PARK, as seen on the Defenders of North SeaTac Park website https://www.kctreeequity.org/
As outlined in the petition on their website, they specifically are calling out the below:
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๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐
๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
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๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐’๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐.
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In order to defend the people in the community surrounding North SeaTac Park, and all people living within the ten-mile community surrounding this airport, from the negative health and climate impacts posed by near-term plans for extensive deforestation as and green space destruction by the Port of Seattle, the current owner and assigned steward of North SeaTac Park, We call for:
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๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ-๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ค ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ค ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐ซ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ก๐ข๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ค, ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ฅ. This may be accomplished by changes in zoning and law, by conservation easement, by transfer or sale of this park land to an appropriate governmental entity, or by a combination of these or other means.
The Port caused the removal by eminent domain of thousands of residents, along with their homes and schools, from the land that this park now occupies. The Port has acknowledged that the creation of the park was โthe culmination of a long term and very open planning process to compensate the areaโs residents for cumulative airport impacts.โ (1) This measure would honor that expressed intent of the Port.
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๐๐ง ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ฅ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ with exceptions only for targeted measures to protect public safety or the health of the surrounding natural ecosystem, or to prevent substantial physical damage to existing private or public property, when these objectives cannot be reasonably achieved through other means.
This call for action responds to the recommendation of Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHS&KC) to increase green space and tree coverage, particularly coniferous trees, within ten miles of SeaTac International Airport in order to reduce human exposure to airport-generated pollutants known to cause disease and shorten lives. (2) PHS&KC has found that, with severity increasing as proximity to the airport increases, lifespans in this ten-mile area are between 1.7 and 5 years shorter than in the balance of the county; premature births, low birthweights, and childhood learning problems are more common; and rates of cancer, and heart, respiratory, and cardiovascular disease are significantly higher. (2)
Furthermore, this call is put forth in order to safeguard human health in a community where residents experience high levels of environmental health disparities as measured by the Washington State Department of Health. (3)
Furthermore, this call holds the Port of Seattle and our greater community accountable to the principles of environmental justice required under Presidential Executive Order 12898 and US Department of Transportation Order 5610.2. That order requires that activities that would have โa disproportionately high and adverse effect on minority populations or low-income populationsโ be avoided or mitigated when practicable. (4, 5)
As reported by PHS&KC, โthe majority of people in King County identifying as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander live in communities within 10 miles of the airportโ, โa greater proportion of people in these communities are immigrants, and a slightly higher proportion are children,โ and the percentage of people in near poverty or poverty increased the closer you are to the airportโ, ranging from 37.2% – 24.4% within ten miles of the airport as compared with 16.1% in the balance of the county. These poverty rates are even higher for children. (2)
This moratorium must go into effect immediately in order to prevent the Port of Seattle from implementing its current near-term plans that would result in significant reduction of green space and tree coverage in this community, and must continue until the CARE Plan for the Greater North SeaTac Park Community, as outlined below, or a plan with comparable protections for our communityโs health, is in place.
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๐ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฒ ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ค ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ (CARE Plan), by the Port of Seattle and other partnering jurisdictions, that is fully funded and professionally managed, in order to restore and maintain for future generations the natural areas within and surrounding North SeaTac Park, including forests and waterways and with emphasis on Tub Lake and its prehistoric peat bog, a type of wetland that is highly environmentally sensitive and increasingly rare in King County.
The plan must include control of invasive weeds and preparation for existing and expected climate impacts such as drought, high heat, and pests.
It must, in a manner and at a scale recommended by experts in urban forestry and public health, propose specific steps to implement the recommendation made by Public Health Seattle & King County to increase green space and tree coverage, particularly coniferous trees, near SeaTac Airport in order to reduce residentsโ exposure to toxics from airport operations.
It must protect and retain existing trees, as large-diameter trees can capture more toxic particulates, store โdisproportionally massive amounts of carbon,โ and โfulfill a variety of unique ecological roles such as increasing drought-tolerance, reducing flooding from intense precipitation events, altering fire behavior, redistributing soil water, and acting as focal centers of mycorrhizal communication and resource sharing networks.” (6)
It should set a goal of restoring urban tree canopy coverage in this community from its current low averages, for example, of 21% in SeaTac (25% not including the airport), 30% in Burien, and 29% in Des Moines, to 40% or more, as recommended by Forterra NW in three studies that it prepared for the Port of Seattle Airport Community Ecology Fund. (7-9)
And it must include concrete actions to limit, to the extent reasonably possible, development activities of the Port of Seattle within ten miles of the airport to its existing developed footprint. The Port controls sprawling multi-acre, single-level parking lots as well as other already-paved and underutilized properties, where redevelopment with higher density approaches are feasible and ecologically sound.
In addition to the above group there are many other communities online, as well as articles being written about this to call people to action and bring awareness. Below are just a few of them:
- https://b-townblog.com/letter-i-am-writing-to-urge-neighbors-to-weigh-in-on-two-new-policies-being-developed-by-the-port-of-seattle/
- https://crosscut.com/investigations/2023/09/effort-save-seatacs-biggest-forest-amid-airport-expansion
- https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/port-seattle-study-north-seatac-park-pushback-residents/281-9f28b391-55a0-4d6f-ad7f-3ead5568962e
- https://seatacblog.com/2022/05/12/seatac-city-council-approves-resolution-to-explore-acquiring-north-seatac-park/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/um9hkl/update_for_save_north_seatac_park_please_send/
- https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/proposal-to-pave-over-seatac-park-with-a-parking-lot-draws-community-ire/
- https://b-townblog.com/city-of-seatac-hoping-to-take-ownership-of-north-seatac-park-from-port-of-seattle/
Please…I beg you once again. Don’t destroy the North SeaTac Park. Please do not develop this sacred land.
Thank you
โ Turner Bradcliff
King County Resident
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