By Izzy Wallace

The City of SeaTac is hoping to receive official ownership over North SeaTac Park.

The city council sent a council request form to the Port of Seattle on July 12, 2022, for SeaTac to take entire ownership of North SeaTac Park, which the Port currently owns.

The Port first started leasing out portions of the 220-acre park to SeaTac in the early 90s through two leases, which SeaTac today pays $20 a year for.

One expires in 2041, the other in 2070.

There had been previous discussion on SeaTac taking and cementing the park as a permanent public park, and this request form was sent to reopen this topic.

“In addition to the letter, in the past several months the city of SeaTac has taken several actions toward studying the feasibility of the city acquiring parts or the entire 220 acres of North SeaTac Park,” said Kyle Moore, government relations and communications manager for the city of SeaTac. “In May, the SeaTac council passed a resolution, which expressed the council’s desire to explore the feasibility of acquiring North SeaTac Park from the Port of Seattle. The resolution was followed by a May 31, 2022, letter sent to Port Executive Director Steve Metruck from SeaTac City Manager Carl Cole, seeking an order from the Port of Seattle Commission, directing the Port of Seattle staff to explore the feasibility of transferring ownership of North SeaTac Park to the City of SeaTac.”

The Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) then began discussing the future of North SeaTac Park last summer.

The JAC is made up of two Port commissioners and three SeaTac councilmembers. This group has since met several times, and are continuing the discussion around the park, Moore said.

A joint statement from the JAC was released on Aug. 4, 2022, stating that the Port and SeaTac are in agreement to work together and figure out a long-term plan regarding the park.

There have also been raised concerns over the years by parkgoers, regarding the Port of Seattle’s Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP), and environmental impacts that were suggested.

The SAMP is the blueprints for future changes to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, to meet growth demand.

The SAMP included a proposed employee parking lot, that would use 55 acres of land- 11 acres of which was a portion of North SeaTac Park.

This covered a southern part of the park’s bike trails, and came near the Tub Lake bog, creeks, and wetlands.

The city council’s Park and Recreation Committee…