What are we defending?

Thousands of people once lived on North SeaTac Park’s 200 acres. By the 1990s, the Port of Seattle had used eminent domain to remove them, along with their homes, schools and businesses, for airport expansion. The public was told that this land would be a park in order to compensate area residents for severe cumulative airport impacts.

But now, the Port proposes, in its Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) and Real Estate Strategic Plan, (RESP) to commercially develop an estimated 107+ acres of mostly tree-covered land in this community - including 31 acres inside the park.

In the North SeaTac Park community - in fact for ten miles around the airport, and most deadly the closer you get - airport pollution is linked to babies being born early and underweight, children having learning problems, and people living sicker and dying younger from a wide range of diseases including cardiovascular, heart, and respiratory.

To help keep this deadly pollution out of people’s lungs and homes Public Health Seattle-King County recommended increasing green space and tree canopy in this community.

The Port proposes to do the opposite and remove over 100+ acres of greenspace.

This harm this would cause would be a special injustice in a community where people already face disparities in health, income, wealth, and risk factors compared with the rest of the county, where higher numbers of people are immigrants and children, and where the majority of those in King County who identify as African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, make their homes.

We envision North SeaTac Park and its surrounding forest restored and protected for the health, well-being and delight of the people and that people in all neighborhoods throughout our region can live within vibrant urban forests where tree-lined corridors connect with parks, forestland, and cool, green spaces to play, relax, and gather in. This Consensus, with your support, can bring that vision closer to reality.