PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles staff is reviewing the qualifications of 10 contractors who responded to a request for qualifications for the master planning of Lincoln Park.
Such planning includes logging most of the towering fir trees in the landing path of the adjacent William R. Fairchild International Airport.
The master planning will decide how the park will be used and how it will look, said Doug Sandau, airports and marinas manager.
The plan will be implemented over four years, Sandau said.
The contractors will be interviewed and scored over the next month.
“Then we will proceed and go forward into negotiations with a consulting firm,” he said.
Post-trees park
The Lincoln Park Master Plan will include a revamping of the park after trees are removed to the airport’s runway in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
The port plans to reclaim 1,354 feet of the runway’s east end — now unused because 60-year-old Douglas fir trees in Lincoln Park have grown too tall.
The trees must be felled to accommodate increased numbers of corporate jets as well as provide additional runway length for Kenmore Air, the passenger airline, to land during inclement weather, the FAA says.
In 2008, about 350 trees were cut down in Lincoln Park — mostly in a former campground — because they were in the immediate approach to the runway.
Western approach
Because of the trees and FAA restrictions, Kenmore Air must fly its nine-passenger aircraft in from the west rather than the east during foul weather — something that Kenmore officials have said costs the small airline an annual $150,000 to $180,000.
New instrument technology for landing — which spurred some of the shallower angles to determine which trees must be cut and which can be spared — should allow Kenmore to land from the east even in low-visibility weather, the port has said.
In other business Monday, the commissioners voted 2-0 with vacationing John Calhoun absent to approve 2 Grade LLC as the contractor to do site preparation work for new industrial buildings next to the airport.
The site will be prepared for three buildings, though only one is planned to be built this year, said David Hagiwara, director of trade and development.
Angeles Composites Technologies Inc. signed a nonbinding letter of intent at the end of last year saying the aircraft parts company planned to lease the first building.
The other three buildings will be ready if ACTI chooses to expand more or if composites subcontractors or other similar companies want to move to Port Angeles, Hagiwara said.
“The site will be more than just dirt — we will have something to offer these companies,” port Executive Director Jeff Robb said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
