There is a great story about the new Seahawks Renton training center on the Seahawks web site today. ( Thanks to those of you who forwarded this to me today)

Click here to read the story

UPDATE: For those of you who like spirited debate, the comments on this item are mostly about helicopters and neighborhood code enforcement

Email from our Mayor, our city attorney, our Public Works Director, and our Airport Manager about the recent night-time helicopter operations.

I don't usually publish emails quite this candid and informal; but this email is already public record, and I wanted citizens to know that City Hall is taking this seriously.



From: "Ryan Zulauf" <rzulauf@ci.renton.wa.us>
Date: June 18, 2008 5:19:46 PM PDT
To: "Law, Denis" <dlaw@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Warren, Larry" <ljwarren@seanet.com>, "Zimmerman, Gregg" <gzimmerman@ci.renton.wa.us>
Cc: "Alexander, April" <analexander@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Briere, Terri" <tbriere@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Corman, Randy" <rcorman@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Covington, Jay" <jcovington@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Hahn, Peter" <phahn@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Medzegian, Julia" <jmedzegian@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Palmer, Marcie" <mpalmer@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Parker, King" <kparker@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Persson, Don" <dpersson@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Taylor, Greg" <gtaylor@ci.renton.wa.us>, "Zwicker, Rich" <rzwicker@ci.renton.wa.us>
Subject: RE: Helicopter


These items have already been suggested and it is up to Mr. O'Leary to patch this mess up when he meets with the Mayor next week.
Ryan

>>> Gregg Zimmerman 6/18/2008 2:35 PM >>>
Thanks, Ryan. I think we need to try to obtain a statement from AirO regarding their intentions with this new line of business. Was this helicopter ride for the highschool students a one-time event? If they plan to do it next year, will they be willing to work with us regarding hours and routes? Do they intend to change the whole character of their presence at the airport and their impact on neighborhoods by expanding this line of business to other events? This would be good information to know so that we can better establish the approach that we need to take. Please ask Mike for a response to these concerns. This is information that the Mayor will want to know if Mike does give him a call.

Gregg

>>> Ryan Zulauf 6/18/2008 11:47 AM >>>
I spoke to Mr. O'Leary this morning and I suggested that he needs to call you directly and have a conversation about the graduation events.

Ryan

>>> "Larry Warren" <ljwarren@seanet.com> 6/18/2008 10:47 AM >>>

As wrong as it seems, the city's hands are tied about the noise level, type
of craft and time of operation at the airport. Snohomish County is being
forced to negotiate with a commercial carrier for use of Paine Field for
trips to Las Vegas.
It seems that our best course of conduct is to work with the operator to be
a good neighbor. If there is no cooperation, then maybe the complaints
should be directed to the carrier and maybe to the FAA. Also, I suppose the
city could make a big deal about how its hands are tied and this particular
carrier is taking advantage of the system. Having your name on TV every
Monday night or even the subject of a public hearing might be cause to
decide to be a better neighbor.

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Law[mailto:DLaw@ci.renton.wa.us]
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 6:31 AM
To: Ryan Zulauf; Larry Warren
Cc: April Alexander; Don Persson; Greg Taylor; Jay Covington; Julia
Medzegian; King Parker; Marcie Palmer; Randy Corman; Rich Zwicker; Terri
Briere
Subject: Helicopter

Larry and Ryan,
Please take a few minutes to examine the details surrounding the helicopter
use this past week at the airport. It seems ridiculous that we have no legal
basis to take action against AirO or others involved in negatively impacting
the community in the early morning hours with a use that only satisfies
their personal gain. While this time it's for graduation, what prevents this
from becoming a fairly regular event?

I also want us to consider directing complaints to Michael O'Leary, and
anyone else responsible for the activity, unless you feel this is unwise. At
the very least, we may want to work the council to take a closer look at
how we plan to use any extra hangar space that becomes available on the
field, including restricting any additional space for users that will
negatively impact the surrounding neighborhoods. We may want to revisit
costs and funding options of building hangar space that we control and
lease.

Thanks.
Denis

I stated below that Charlie Conner's temporary helicopter use permit (issued last year) has been overturned by our Hearing Examiner. The permit was tossed mostly on procedural grounds, based on a determination that the administration had erred in allowing a temporary use that was arguably not allowed by ordinance. The fact that city codes do not address helicopter use in residential areas, while allowing them as conditional uses in other zones, is interpreted to prohibit them in residential areas under the current laws.

However, I should have mentioned that a new ordinance allowing limited residential helicopter operation, as a conditional use, is coming to city council in the coming weeks or months. This ordinance would lay out terms for the keeping of helicopters in residentail areas when allowed by FAA. As a practical matter, the new ordianance and current FAA rules would only allow helicopters at a few properties on the lake. And, any personal heliport permits would have to be presented to the Hearing Examiner (the same one mentioned above), who would hear public testimony and could impose additional specific requirements on the use as part of the COnditional Use process.

So, council will weigh in on this, and depending on the outcome, possible turn Mr. Conner's helicopter permit question BACK to the Hearing Examiner.

Since this is going to council, I wanted to raise a question I've been pondering. What are the chances that we are arriving at the future, where personal air travel may in fact become more commonplace? It's possible that in coming years some of these companies working on new light-weight helicopters, and "flying cars" (lightweight aircraft that don't require special skills to fly.

If so, do we leave it to the FAA, or do we do we attempt to prepare for the future in today's city codes...?

I would love to hear your thoughts!




Popular Mechanics, 1951




Clearly, the inspiration for the Space Needle

The Hearing examiner has overturned the basis for Charlie Conner's Temporary Helicopter Use Permit. My understanding is that he will now have to cease helicopter operations (possibly with a ten day grace period... I'm still checking on the process.)

The complete Hearing Examiner's record is given Here

I read through the decision, and generally agree with much of the reasoning, but there is one point I have a question on. (Please note that this permit was originally issued under the previous administration--which you know my opinion of -- and I was never consulted. So I have no strong bias either way on this topic)

I'll keep that to myself until I check on it, but meanwhile I would be interested on other's opinions.

Charlie Conner's Helicopter makes the Seattle Times. Click Here to see the story.

There is also a (non-scientific) poll with this story, where readers can give their opinion on this controversy. Right now, the results say 54 % would allow the helicopter, 41 % would be opposed, and the rest are not sure. (There have been about 1000 opinions recorded)

Subject: Conner Helicopter Appeal Rescheduled
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:56:06 -0800

The Hearing Examiner appeal hearing for the Conner Helicopter Temporary Use
Permit has been rescheduled to Tuesday, March 18th, at 9:00 a.m. at the request
of the City and the applicant. The City requested the later date to avoid
confusion between this action and the code work that is underway. The
applicant's attorney is unavailable until the March date. The appellants were
notified by our City Attorney and have agreed to the new hearing date. Notice
was mailed to the appellants, applicant, and Parties of Record.

The new hearing date is: Tuesday, March 18, at 9:00 a.m. in the Council
Chambers.
In the event that you receive questions or inquiries regarding the hearing,
please feel free to direct the parties to me at: 425-430-7286 or
jhenning@ci.renton.wa.us


Jennifer Toth Henning, AICP
Planning Manager
1055 South Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057
425.430.7286 (ph)
jhenning@ci.renton.wa.us

Mark Hancock, who adminsters nojets.org, and Charlie Conner, Kennydale lakefront resident with a helicopter, have been working productively to reach a mutually acceptable aggreement on lakefront heliports. (This has been a huge topic of discussion on earlier blog entries)

The city will look seriously at their joint recommendation. I'm delighted to see that a solution may be at hand.

Here are some of the emails on the topic.

_( Read more... )

I received a comment from Charlie Conner, who owns the helicopter that was the subject of discussion in earlier blogs. He offers his phone number, and wants to address any questions or concerns you may have.

See his comment by clicking Here

Several people have noticed an abundance of helicopters in Renton skies recently...yes, I can anticipate the sarcastic question, ...are they "black helicopters" :-). Appearantly, Fort Lewis is conducting helicopter and fixed wing exercises in Renton area.

I don't know the nature of the exercise...I would guess some sort of training, but I don't really know.

( See the email from our airport manager here )

A well-informed reader of this blog commented that all city codes are available (by a third-party firm) online at this site here I suppose I should have known this, but I have been relying on the old fasioned method...big hefty binders at my council desk.

Anyway, this link is great, and I will add it to my main menu.

I have performed a serch on "helicopters," "helicopter," and "heliport" and only got one hit: in the definition section under aircraft.

Other than that, the code appears to not speak about zoning for helicopters.

If anyone knows differently, I would love to get your input.

Thanks!

The aerial photos generated a lot of comments, as many people recognized the photographer took them from Charlie Conners helicopter. Apparently the helicopter, which is stationed at a waterfront home on Lake Washington, has a few Kennydale residents upset.

Meanwhile, Mr. Conners seems to have a large group of residents supporting his right to keep his helicopter, including his immediate neighbors and many other in his neighborhood (they have signed a petition in support.)

Here is a comment I just received with a link to more background information in the Business Journal.

_______________________________________________________

(Anonymous) on November 14th, 2007 05:32 pm (local)
IP Address:(65.122.177.82)
Here is an article and photo of Conner and his chopper in his Kennydale backyard (click on the photo for a bigger copy):
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/07/23/story16.html
Click here to see the story

Some nice aerial shots of Renton's Kennydale lakefront. The great photos were shot by Susan Camerer.



Conner Homes project (70 homes priced from $700,000 to $4,000,000.



Kennydale Beach Park



The Seahawks Training Center