Seaplanes could be a part of life in Kirkland’s Lakeview neighborhood in the near future, should a proposal skip through the governmental hoops unscathed.
The proposal, submitted by representatives from Carillon Properties in late May, would bring sightseeing Seaplane service to Carillon Point on Lake Washington.
The service would include two planes docking along the guest pier of the Woodmark Hotel & Still Spa via Seaplane Scenics, a sightseeing company based in Renton. The company offers 20-minute flights departing from the Renton Airport, either by land or by sea.
The Carillon application would have planes in operation from 9 a.m. to one hour before sunset, year-round. Planes would not be hangared in Kirkland, and there would be no additional construction at the Carillon Point site.
Only one plane could dock at the Carillon pier at a time, and the planes would take off and land more than 1,000 feet offshore.
The application has a handful of environmental boxes to check, something Christian Geitz, a planner with the city of Kirkland, is monitoring. Environmental impact standards are “very grey,” Geitz said, and the city is considering how best to mitigate impact on the surrounding area.
“They may need to limit their hours of operation, but we still need to make that determination,” Geitz said. “The applicant will have to comply with FAA standards for flying off a body of water.”
A large sign is posted on Lake Washington Boulevard in front of the Carillon Point development, and the project plans can be viewed on the city’s website. The project is open to public comment until June 20, and will go before the hearing examiner in September.
Geitz and the planning department will make a recommendation to the hearing examiner, who then forwards a recommendation to the Washington State Department of Ecology.
Already, Geitz said he has recieved a large enough response — around 20 emails and letters, all negative, to schedule an evening public hearing in the fall to accommodate a larger number of people.
“They’re citing noise and environmental impacts,” he said, adding that residents can send emails, drop off letters or send a letter in the mail to throw their remarks into the fray.
And as Kirkland has never had seaplanes take off and land from the city’s shoreline, Geitz is charting new waters in terms of public response.
“We’ve never done one of these applications before, so we have nothing to base it on,” he said.
Sue Gemmill, the property manager for Carillon Properties, did not respond to several requests for information and eventually declined to comment on the application, instead directing all requests to the city of Kirkland.
