Last updated November 18, 2010 9:51 p.m. PT
A proposed change in airspace over Seattle has some Magnolia residents worried that the skies above them will be noisier, busier and more polluted.
The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to enlarge the Class B airspace over Magnolia and parts of Queen Anne and Ballard, by lowering the floor of the space from 3,000 feet to 2,000 feet above sea level. The space is used by planes coming into and leaving Sea-Tac International Airport.
The change would mean that planes going to Boeing Field would have to fly in a smaller vertical corridor over Magnolia, or follow certain FAA procedures.
Robert Bismuth, a trustee of the Magnolia Community Club and a longtime pilot, said the skies above Magnolia are already one of the busiest airspaces in the city, with planes going to Sea-Tac, Boeing Field, Payne Field and Lake Union.
"It takes this very busy corner of airspace and crushes all that traffic down to a very narrow sliver of space to fly through," said Bismuth. "You've moved all that traffic down closer to the ground, so there's more noise and more pollution."
The proposal would not lower the floor of space used by Boeing Field planes. That floor would remain the same at 1,500 feet above Magnolia.
The neighborhood's concerns prompted King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, who represents the area, to write to FAA and the Port of Seattle.
"Traffic into (King County International Airport) includes significant nighttime traffic such as United Parcel Service, Airborne Express and many other overnight delivery and corporate airplanes," Phillips wrote.
"This lowering of the (Class B) floor will exacerbate an already intolerable situation, bringing noise impacts even closer to homes and businesses, at all hours of day and night."
Phillips said he has long advocated for moving the approach into Boeing Field to over Elliott Bay, to mitigate impacts of air traffic on the neighborhood.
Although FAA has made its proposal public - and is holding three public meetings on the issue next month - spokesman Allen Kenitzer said agency rules prevent him from saying much.
But he said a prominent reason why FAA has increased other similar Class B airspaces was to create a bigger buffer between planes.
Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper said nothing had changed at Sea-Tac to prompt FAA's proposal.
"Those things are not changing because of anything changing at Sea-Tac," he said. "Our flight track into Sea-Tac and into Boeing Field are still the same."
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