The mayors of Olympia, Yelm, Lacey, Rainier, Tumwater, Tenino and Bucoda, along with the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), on Oct. 17 sent a letter to Washington state lawmakers voicing continued opposition to a proposed airport in Thurston County.
The new airport is being proposed as the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is expected to outgrow its aircraft capacity in the upcoming decades. A six-mile area in Thurston County is among the finalists submitted to the state Legislature for consideration.
Several reasons were listed in the letter as to why Thurston County would not be a good location for the expansion airport.
“Please help us maintain the quality of life and character of Thurston County. Our county has a delicate balance between development and fragile prairie habitats that are home to endangered species. Thurston County has also experienced rapidly-dwindling agricultural lands. The prospects of an airport expansion will exponentially increase the loss of agricultural lands and put at risk the balance our residents have worked hard to maintain with our natural environment,” an excerpt from the letter stated.
On Friday morning at the South Thurston Economic Development Initiative (STEDI) monthly meeting in Yelm, Thurston County Commissioner Carolina Mejia provided an update as to the project’s status.
“We’ve received a lot of emails and calls from citizens all around the county who are concerned about the proposal. We sent this letter to both the legislators and the (Washington) Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission talking about what our next steps are going to be in regards to this,” Mejia said.
The proposed site in Thurston County would be placed southeast of East Olympia while the other two proposed sites are both in Pierce County, the first being south of Graham and the other being south of South Creek, according to Seattle Medium reporting
