Port of Olympia commission delays vote on airport master plan update after appeal
The Port of Olympia commission on Monday was set to vote on an update to its Olympia Regional Airport master plan — a growth plan required by the Federal Aviation Administration — but that vote was postponed because an environmental decision tied to the master plan has been appealed.
The environmental decision and appeal fall under the state Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).
After seeing the large number of people who planned to speak during public comment, port Executive Director Alex Smith made clear the vote was not happening.
“We can’t ask the commission to approve something that is under appeal for SEPA,” she said. “So we will bring that back to the commission for their consideration once the SEPA appeal has been resolved.”
The master plan for the airport in Tumwater, which the port has operated since the early 1960s, is updated every seven to 10 years. The last update was in 2013 and the port is trying to update it for 2021. The process was delayed by staff turnover but recently restarted, port officials have said.
As part of the update process, the port issued a decision under SEPA in early February.
“The Port of Olympia has determined that adoption of the 2021 Olympia Airport Master Plan update does not have a probable significant adverse impact upon the environment due to proposed measures to reduce or control impacts associated with its implementation, including mitigation requirements.”
That decision is called “a mitigated determination of non-significance.”
However, a number of residents disagreed with that decision. The Black Hills Audubon Society and a group of residents have appealed that decision to a hearings examiner.
“It was clear error for the port to defer its analysis of environmental impacts to future projects and development proposals because future development is probable as a result of the Master Plan update,” the group of appellants wrote.
“For that reason... appellants request that the Hearing Examiner reverse and vacate the mitigated determination of non-significance.
“Appellants also request that the port halt further processing of the Master Plan update to ensure that there is an adequate assessment of the environmental and natural resources impacts, including noise pollution, air pollution and impacts to aquifers, water quality, in-stream flow protection, fisheries, and protected prairie species.”
The port does not have a hearings examiner on staff, so they are in the process of hiring one, port operations director Warren Hendrickson said Monday.
The port is expected to hire Smith Alling PS, a Tacoma law firm, and work with its principal Robert Mack, Hendrickson said.
Following that, they will present the appeal to him, he said. The port expects the hearing to take place in the next 30-60 days, Hendrickson said.
Although the commission did not vote on the airport master plan update at its Monday meeting, Tumwater resident Carla Wulfsberg still expressed her disappointment that the issue had come this far.
“I’m here really to speak very personally, because I’m deeply disappointed that all of you are not taking seriously community health and well being,” she said. “If it had not been for the community, you would be voting tonight on the airport Master Plan update, likely to approve it.
“That’s what your promotional material (commission agenda) said, that you would be approving it tonight. So I think that it’s time that you sort of take a step back and look at the stewardship that you’ve been granted by your positions to protect us, to protect our quality of life, our environment and our health, particularly our health.”
Shawn Gilbertson, the port’s director of environmental planning and programs, explained the port’s SEPA decision in February.
“I think it’s important to note that the environmental analysis for the airport master plan is really an analysis of what the adoption of the airport master plan does to the environment,” he said. “So it’s a comparison between what is happening there now and what the airport master plan proposes. It’s not a comparison to the airport if it wasn’t there.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM.
