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Work group outlines research priorities, statutory duties and June budget timing
Summary
Members prioritized two legislatively-flagged near-term topics (military airspace conflicts and unsuitable geographies due to environmental or community impacts), asked the consultant for a February literature review and set a June deadline to submit a costed budget request to the Legislature.
The Commercial Aviation Work Group spent the meeting translating the statutory requirements of ESSB 51 61 into a near‑term workplan and budget timeline.
Chair Evan Dorvey summarized the statute’s broad charge to assess long‑term commercial aviation needs in Western Washington, consider capacity in adjacent states and provinces, and evaluate expansion, alternatives and environmental/community impacts. The chair and members flagged two items the Legislature asked the group to prioritize for early reporting: identifying areas that require "no further review" because of military conflicts and mapping geographies that are unsuitable for consideration due to environmental impacts or impacts on overburdened communities.
Why it matters: the Legislature expects at least an initial report on some items within the next annual report cycle; members agreed that baseline research and early DOD outreach will be necessary to determine which sites can be excluded from further study. A lieutenant colonel from the Air Force had previously told the group a formal process would be required for DOD to assess potential impacts.
Budget and schedule: members and consultants set a three‑stage near term schedule: a baseline literature review and demand‑capacity profile by February; capacity limitations and candidate opportunities by April; and costed task orders and a proposed funding request to the Legislature by June. Anne (staff/manager for the contract) emphasized that the June budget request must outline resources for work through the next biennium so the Legislature can decide funding levels.
Member concerns and scope discipline: members repeatedly stressed the need to keep early public outreach framed (avoid implying the group is searching for a specific site), to be transparent about limits of authority and to set guardrails before large public engagements. Several members urged inclusion of modal solutions—rail, bus and other multimodal options—alongside airport capacity options.
What’s next: the consultant team will produce a concise literature digest and cost estimates for initial task orders; the work group will review those items in February and refine priorities at subsequent meetings ahead of a June legislative budget submission.
