Port Starts Land Buy for Olympia Airport Remodel

February 10, 2004

Port Starts Land Buy for Airport Remodel
The Olympian, WA 
 

Port of Olympia commissioners directed their staff
Monday to begin acquiring private property to make
room for a major Olympia Regional Airport remodeling. 
The port plans to relocate the airport's main runway
to the south. Federal aviation officials believe the
north end of the runway is a safety concern because it
ends too close to Capitol Boulevard South traffic. 

The $11.8 million project will occur during the next
two years. 

Commissioners voted 3-0 to begin talks to buy three
parcels on the airport's southern edge from private
landowners. The port needs the land to relocate roads
and make room for landing equipment in preparation for
moving the runway to the south. 

Though none of the landowners spoke at Monday's
commissioners' meeting, Commissioner Bob Van Schoorl
voted to acquire the property only after the staff
assured him that no one objected to the idea. 

Heber Kennedy, the port's director of properties,
estimated three private parcels would cost about
$70,000. 

The land is vacant. 

The Federal Aviation Administration, which ordered the
runway relocation, is paying $10.6 million of the
cost. The port is picking up the $1.2 million balance.


The port has the power to acquire the property through
condemnation if it cannot arrive at an agreeable price
with the landowners. 

In the first phase of work this year, the port will
relocate Tilley Road to the east and realign Case
Road. That will allow the port to close the current
Tilley Road and 88th Avenue on the south edge of the
airport. 

In effect, the roadwork will create a traffic "safety
zone" when the runway is relocated 750 feet to the
south. That will happen by closing off part of the
north end to planes and pouring an extension on the
south end of the runway next year. 

When the port was planning the project the past few
years, a few residents worried whether the airport
would become busier or noisier, or whether larger
planes would start using the runway. 

But commissioners say they are not planning to add
larger planes. They say the project is meant only to
improve safety to passing motorists near the north end
of the runway. 

 

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