PORT ANGELES — The Lincoln Park Master Plan is three years away from being complete, but Port Angeles City Council members are already finding themselves on the defensive as a growing number of people voice concern that it will lead to the removal of the park’s large and numerous evergreens.
For the past three council meetings in a row, some who live near the city-owned park have accused the council of being in favor of clearcutting the land in order to improve safety for aircraft landing at William R. Fairchild International Airport, owned by the Port of Port Angeles.
That has prompted two council members — Mayor Dan Di Guilio and Deputy Mayor Don Perry — to respond emphatically during public comment periods that no decisions have been made on whether trees will be removed.
“This one is a little frustrating for me,” Perry said at the Tuesday council meeting.
“We have not made any decisions, and we’re certainly not rolling over and die and let somebody do something,” he added.
It’s true that no decision has been made on whether trees will be removed to improve aircraft safety and maintain the airport’s current landing approach.
Although the City Council approved the removal of up to 45 trees last September, the Port of Port Angeles is withholding action until the master plan is complete.
The accusations of clearcutting the park come from the Port of Port Angeles’ concern over the trees continually growing into the path of landing aircraft.
Port staff have said they would prefer to remove all of the trees in that approach — which they now said includes all of the evergreens in the park except a batch on the north side — rather than removing a few at a time as they grow into the landing path.
That prompted both public entities to agree on developing a master plan for the park, funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, to determine how that problem should be resolved.
But will that plan, which has to be approved by the City Council, call for a clearcut?
No, port staff said.
Although they don’t shy away from saying the plan will propose tree cutting. Just how much is to be determined.
“It will have to” propose tree cutting, said port Executive Director Jeff Robb.
“Those trees are going to hit [the landing approach] at some point,” he later added.
Said Doug Sandau, port airport and marinas manager: “Large portions of trees are going to be affected by this. They’re in the way. They’re in the safe approach.”
The port has selected HBB Landscape Architecture to develop the park plan, though a contract hasn’t been signed.
The company will use public input, to be taken at at least four public meetings not yet scheduled, to determine how the park should be developed, particularly where trees are removed.
Replacing trees with low-canopy species has been mentioned as a way to replace evergreens.
Input on tree removal will also be taken.
Is no tree removal an option?
Yes, if the council decides so, Robb said.
But HBB, while developing the proposed plan, will be working within certain guidelines that include maintaining a safe landing approach at the airport.
That can’t be done, Robb said, without removing trees.
The airport currently uses a 40:1 approach, which is steeper than the recommended descent of 34:1, he said.
If no trees are removed, that approach will have to be made even steeper, possibly within the next three to five years, Sandau said.
The City Council also has the option of telling the port to continue to only remove the tallest trees.
That is something the port would accept, Robb said, though it’s not the ideal solution.
“We will do what works best for the city,” he said.
“We think that there’s probably a better solution where we transform than pick away at this.
“If we take trees in the future, we are going to replace those trees and make the park whole or even better than it is today.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.