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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-27-2014 - Agenda Packet MEDINA, WASHINGTON MEDINA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA Medina City Hall, Council Chambers 501 Evergreen Point Road, Medina MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014 5:30 PM MAYOR PATRICK BOYD CITY MANAGER MICHAEL SAUERWEIN DEPUTY MAYOR DAVID LEE CITY ATTORNEY KARI SAND COUNCIL MEMBERS JAY DECKER MICHAEL LUIS JOHN MAFFEI ALEX MORCOS CURT PRYDE CITY CLERK AIMEE KELLERMAN AGENDA EXECUTIVE SESSION - CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL Council Members Boyd, Decker, Lee, Luis, Maffei, Morcos, and Pryde EXECUTIVE SESSION ES-1: RCW 42.30.110 (1) (g) To evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a public employee; and ES-2: RCW 42.30.110 (1) (i) To discuss with legal counsel representing the agency matters relating to agency enforcement actions, or to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency, the governing body, or a member acting in an official capacity is, or is likely to become, a party, when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency; and ES-3: RCW 42.30.110 (b) To consider the minimum price at which real estate by lease or purchase when public knowledge regarding such consideration would cause a likelihood of increased price. 1 ADJOURNMENT Council will adjourn the Executive Session to the Study Session in the Medina Council Chambers. 1. STUDY SESSION - CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL Council Members Boyd, Decker, Lee, Luis, Maffei, Morcos, and Pryde 2. STUDY SESSION ITEM 2.1 Subject: Airport Noise Update by Consultant Alyson Jackson 2.2 Subject: Marine Patrol Annual Report by Sergeant Kevin Haistings 2.3 Subject: Overlake Drive East Bridge Railing Replacement 3 ADJOURNMENT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The study session is the forum used by Council to review forthcoming programs of the City, to receive progress reports on current issues, or to receive similar information from the City Manager and others. All discussions and conclusions held during a workshop are of an informal nature. Generally, final action is not taken while in a study session unless delayed action may result in adverse consequences. Additionally, there is no public comment at a study session. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need a disability-related modification or accommodation, including auxiliary aids or services, to participate in this meeting, please contact the City Clerk’s Office at (425) 233-6410 at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. CERTIFICATION OF POSTING OF AGENDA I, Aimee Kellerman, City Clerk for the City of Medina, declare that the foregoing agenda for the Monday, October 27, 2014 Special Meeting of the Medina City Council was posted and available for review on Thursday, October 23, 2014 at City Hall of the City of Medina, 501 Evergreen Point Road, Medina, WA 98039. The agenda is also available on the city website at www.medina-wa.gov. Signed Thursday, October 23, 2014 at Medina, Washington. 2 1 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4 October 14, 2014 Dear Medina City Council Members, Below you will find a flight track update for your review prior to the Council Study Session next Monday. Since there are a number of council members who have not yet been involved with this issue, I have provided some background summary information. Hopefully this will be helpful in bringing everyone up to speed. I will be happy to answer address your questions at the meeting on Monday. Sincerely, Allyson Jackson City of Medina-Consultant on Flight Tracks AGENDA ITEM 2.1 3 2 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4 Flight Track Background: In 1990, after over ninety highly contentious public meetings and the completion of an Environmental Assessment, which was challenged in the courts by several Seattle communities and narrowly upheld, the FAA implemented the Four Post Plan for SeaTac air traffic. This was a dramatic change in the use of Puget Sound airspace and was justified by the FAA as a way to increase efficiency, capacity and safety at SeaTac. At that time there were 355,000 annual aircraft operations in and out of SeaTac. In the last 14 years, annual operations have been as high as 445,667 and as low as 309,577. In 2013, there were 317,000 SeaTac aircraft operations with high growth anticipated for the next several years. The FAA’s 1990 Four Post Environmental Assessment (EA) and Record of Decision (ROD) contained specific procedures for SeaTac departures and arrivals. Of these, there are 2 procedures which impact the skies over Medina: North flow departures and South flow arrivals. North flow Departures: When the wind is from the north, planes take off (into the wind) to the north (shown in green below). This occurs about 35%-40% of the time and most often in sunny weather. The 1990 Four Post EA dictated that all departing eastern or southwest bound jets must fly north from the airport until they have reached the 8 nautical mile marker and 4,000 feet msl before making a right turn east. (On the map, 8 nm would be just north of the tip of Seward Park). There is a nighttime curfew on this flight track such that during the late night (after 10 pm) and early morning hours (before 6 am), departures must instead turn west and fly out the Duwamish Corridor to decrease nighttime noise impacts on residential populations. At the time of the Four Post implementation, verbal assurances were made by the FAA that most of these east turn departure flights would be routed through the open water between Medina and Mercer Island. The FAA never followed through on these assurances and today most of these departures fly several miles beyond the 8 nm mark before initiating their east turn and end up directly over Medina. Over the years, this has been a highly contentious issue. Unfortunately because these flights over Medina are in compliance with the specific procedures set forth in the Four Post, Medina has not had any recourse. AGENDA ITEM 2.1 4 3 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4 South flow Arrivals: When the wind is from the south (60 - 65% of the time), arriving flights make their descent from the north end. Planes arriving from southern and eastern destinations fly north of the airport and then turn south to land. Prior to the Four Post implementation, there were no arriving jets that came in from the east side of Seattle. All jets came in over the Puget Sound. See the Pre-Four Post diagram to the right which shows all arrivals coming in from the west side of Seattle and then turning south to land at the airport. The Four Post Plan dramatically changed this picture. Upon implementation, jets from the east were required to fly north of the 520 bridge before turning south to join the arrival stream. Specifically the Four Post Plan reads: “Turbojet arrivals from the Northeast and Southeast arrival fixes will be positioned so as to be established on the Runway 16 final approach course, no closer to the airport than State Route 520 (11 nautical miles north) and no lower than 5000 feet msl.” The flight track to the left shows a typical south flow arrival day after the Four Post plan was implemented. Note how all of the arrivals from the east side are turning north of Medina over open water before joining the arrival stream heading south into the airport. At the time of the Four Post implementation, only 30% of all arrivals were put on this route from the east side. The remainder of the arrivals continued to arrive west of Seattle over the Puget Sound and through the Duwamish industrial corridor to minimize noise for residential populations. Over the next 10 years, without notice or environmental review, the FAA shifted all the flights from California and the southwestern destinations onto the east side route resulting in more than 70% of all arrivals into SeaTac coming in over the eastside. ECAAN (a non- profit group dedicated to reducing eastside air traffic noise) challenged this significant shift in air traffic routing but was rebuffed by the FAA with the explanation that since the south flow arrival track was as an established flight track, the FAA could increase its usage without any further environmental assessment. This becomes an important point to keep in mind as the FAA implements their NextGen Project which dramatically concentrates flights on narrow flight corridors. AGENDA ITEM 2.1 5 4 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4 South flow Arrival Compliance: Ten years after the Four Post implementation, Medina residents began to notice that many arrival aircraft were initiating their turns early and Medina saw a significant increase in arrival aircraft overflights. Below are some sample flight tracks which show this non-compliance to the Four Post EA. Many of these aircraft are making their turns south of the 520 bridge and joining the final approach course well below 5000 feet which is not in compliance with the Four Post Plan south flow arrival procedures. Between 2000 and 2009 many attempts were made by the City of Medina to work with the Port of Seattle and the FAA to improve south flow arrival compliance. The FAA has responsibility and accountability for flight tracks. In general, the Port of Seattle’s role is to collect air traffic noise concerns from the public, track flights relative to their own noise abatement corridors and share this info with the FAA and the public upon request. There were times that certain FAA officials were responsive to Medina’s concerns and arrival compliance improved for a short period of time. Unfortunately these improvements did not last. Other FAA officials promised that they were working on it but no improvements occurred. Still other FAA and Port officials were unwilling to acknowledge that there was a compliance problem. The Port’s Noise Abatement Report statistics were often cited by both the Port and FAA as proof that there was sufficient compliance to the Four Post Plan. We have since confirmed that the Port’s Noise AGENDA ITEM 2.1 6 5 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4 Abatement Corridors are not used to measure Four Post compliance. By late 2009, the FAA and the Port became non-responsive to Medina’s requests. For the last four years, I have been working with the FAA and Port of Seattle to resolve this issue on behalf of the City of Medina. Medina’s goal has been to ensure that the south flow arrivals from the east flight track is consistent with the procedures set forth in the 1990 Four Post EA. When these procedures are followed, arrival flight tracks are well north of Medina. Re-establishing compliance is important because it reduces aircraft noise in Medina. Additionally, when the FAA implements Greener Skies (NextGen) procedures, this sets the stage for the arrival air traffic to be concentrated north of Medina on the existing Four Post EA track rather than allowing it to be concentrated directly over Medina. Generally efforts over the last four years have included:  Fully participating and representing Medina in the Part 150 Noise Abatement Study.  Meeting and corresponding with the FAA TRACON, FAA District Managers, FAA Regional Administrator, FAA Environmental Policy Team and Port of Seattle Noise Abatement office in order to represent Medina’s concerns and advocate for change.  Continually reviewing Port of Seattle flight tracks and quarterly compliance reports to determine potential causes for the breakdown in compliance.  Collaborating with the retired FAA Regional Manager who implemented the Four Post Plan to determine what is causing breakdown in compliance.  Researching and understanding the future implications for Medina of the Greener Skies (NextGen) Project. This project is currently being implemented for south flow arrivals from the west. The result will be a narrow, highly condensed flight track corridor.  Gathering necessary information to pursue legal action as needed to include hiring the Washington Consulting Group (aviation consulting experts) to review the Four Post EA/ROD procedures and provide an opinion on whether current flight tracks show compliance to the Four Post EA. Their opinion paper supports Medina’s position.  At the City Council’s direction, researching and interviewing environmental attorneys to potentially represent Medina on this issue. In June of 2013, as Medina was about to hire a local attorney to pursue legal action, a breakthrough finally took place. The FAA Regional Administrator reviewed Medina’s position and tasked the FAA TRACON to conduct a thorough review. A new FAA TRACON management team compared the current tracks and internal procedures to those specified in the Four Post Plan. Discrepancies were noted and a plan was put in place to address compliance. Additionally the FAA acknowledged that changes to procedures in an EA do, in fact, require a new EA. Therefore the FAA is legally required to follow the procedures in the 1990 Four Post EA. The critical components of compliance for south flow arrivals are that aircraft join the final arrival approach north of the 520 bridge and the aircraft must join the approach at or above 5000 feet. Based on their internal review, the FAA TRACON implemented the following plan in the summer of 2013:  Air Traffic Controller training/briefings to include the specifics of the Four Post Plan.  Union agreement to allow a marker for Husky Stadium to be added to the controller’s radar map and controllers were briefed that flights need to intersect final north of this point.  A “Targets Box” was added to the FAA’s tracking system which allows TRACON management to track instances where flights do not comply with the Four Post guidelines. Controller feedback will be provided when necessary in order to improve compliance to the FAA’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).  Item b. 2. (In South Flow) of the SOP was changed so that, if possible, was removed. Therefore, this section now reads: “Ensure that turbojet arrivals from the east side are established on the final approach course at or above 5000 feet and no closer to the airport than the SEA 13 DME (Husky Stadium).” AGENDA ITEM 2.1 7 6 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4  For visual approaches, other than issuance of the Husky Charted Visual approach, the TRACON will not normally provide visual approach clearance until the aircraft is on the base leg, north of Husky Stadium. The flight track map on the left shows a typical day before the FAA implanted their changes. The maps below are after the FAA changes were implemented. These most recent tracks show significant improvement and are quite consistent with the flight track map on page 2, which shows what air traffic looked like shortly after the Four Post Plan was implemented. 9/13/2013 South Flow Arrivals 24 hours Jets Only 3/22/2013 South Flow Arrivals 24 Hours Jets Only AGENDA ITEM 2.1 8 7 | P a g e F l i g h t T r a c k U p d a t e 1 0 / 1 4 / 2 0 1 4 Current Status: Recent flight tracks continue to show compliance to the Four Post Plan EA parameter of joining final north of the 520 bridge (11 nautical miles from the airport). The FAA recognizes that they still need to improve compliance with the altitude component of the Four Post EA procedure which states that flights need to join final at or above 5000 feet. At times, weather and safety impact their ability to achieve full compliance of the altitude component and the FAA must always put safety first. Upon request, the FAA will continue to provide Medina with status reports. The Port of Seattle has agreed to provide monthly summaries of south flow arrival flight tracks which highlight those flights that fly outside of the Port’s Noise Abatement Corridors. However as noted above, there are discrepancies between the Port’s Noise Abatement Corridors and the procedures outlined in the Four Post EA. The Port now tells us that their reporting of south flow arrival compliance has never been intended to measure compliance to the Four Post EA. We requested that the Port review their Noise Abatement Parameters and consider changing them to be more consistent with the Four Post EA. They are opposed to this idea. We submitted a public records request to determine how the Port’s noise abatement arrival corridors were established and instead received a copy of how the departure corridors were established and a copy of the FAA Four Post EA. They have said that they have no other documentation which shows how their arrival corridors were established. We therefore requested that the Port provide written clarification that the Port’s Noise Abatement Reports do not measure the FAA’s compliance to the Four Post EA. This is a critical point because for the last 14 years both the Port and the FAA have often used the Port’s reports to show FAA EA compliance. We just received this information from the Port. Here is their statement: “The Port of Seattle Airport Noise Programs Office does not monitor the FAA’s 4 post plan for compliance. Elements of the noise abatement corridors mimic many of the 4 post plan elements, but are not intended to monitor compliance to the FAA’s documents or procedures as outlined in the 4 post plan or its EA.” The Port of Seattle has also agreed to provide a monthly arrival flight altitude report to assist Medina in monitoring compliance to the altitude requirement in the Four Post EA. Next Steps: Due to the nature of Puget Sound airspace, the Port, the FAA’s and the airlines’ goal to land as many planes as quickly and efficiently as possible and the forecasted increase in SeaTac aircraft operations, there will always be a tendency for the arrival flight track to migrate south over Medina. Additionally, re-establishing compliance has not gone unnoticed by other municipalities who are now seeing an increase in arrival traffic as flights have moved back to the area required in the Four Post EA. Both the Port of Seattle and the FAA have commented that they are fielding an increase in complaints. To avoid this track shifting south again and being permanently established over Medina will require ongoing monitoring and vigilance. If the track shifts south unnoticed, Medina could easily end up with the narrow, concentrated NextGen arrival track flying directly overhead 24 hours a day. Currently the Port and FAA are providing the data necessary for Medina to regularly evaluate the track. It is in Medina’s best interest to review these reports on a quarterly basis and continue to work with the FAA and Port if the track begins to shift south again. AGENDA ITEM 2.1 9