Sunday, February 18, 2007
By JONATHAN NELSON Columbian staff writer
Developers of Vancouvercenter assumed their plans for offices, condominiums and apartments in downtown Vancouver would sail through a Federal Aviation Administration review.
After all, the design met the city's height requirements for structures within a mile of Pearson Field's landing strip.
The FAA gave its blessing to the project, as long as two floors were lopped off.
Turns out the city's building code didn't mesh with the federal agency.
Some frantic negotiations ensued and resulted in developers being able to put those two floors back into the design. City officials are working with the FAA to get local ordinances aligned with federal requirements.
The misunderstanding highlights the tension between general aviation airports such as Pearson and redevelopment.
From 1981 to 2005, 987 public use airstrips have closed throughout the U.S. Evergreen Airport in east Vancouver joined those ranks last summer when the land became too valuable and was sold to be transformed into a retail center.
The dynamics of general aviation airports coexisting with urban areas are particularly acute in Vancouver as city leaders push for a denser downtown. That often means going vertical with taller buildings -- a strategy that is expected to be used for the creation of neighborhoods along the Columbia River in Pearson's shadow.
Steve Burdick, manager of Vancouver's economic development department, agreed Pearson's presence is restrictive, but not so much that it would quash the momentum of continued downtown renewal.
"Are there available opportunities to build out the downtown to the vision contained in the Vancouver City Center Vision plan?" Burdick asked. "The answer is yes, there are."
Dave Copenhaver, a principal in Gramor Development of Tualatin, Ore., which is poised to buy and develop the waterfront property, agrees.
"I don't see Pearson as a negative," Copenhaver said. "At our project's east end we envision buildings of up to six floors, while at the west end (farther from Pearson) building heights could go to 12 to 16 floors. I don't see that as underdeveloping the site."
Economic impact
The debate in Pearson's case is also one of economics.
Ron Frederiksen, a pilot and chairman of Pearson's aviation advisory committee, said Pearson is part of a larger transportation network that attracts tourists, brings business to the area and trains tomorrow's pilots.
"If you don't nurture that, the whole system will fall apart," he said.
Washington state officials agree with Frederiksen and in 2005 ordered the transportation department to update its information on the state's network of 140 public use airports, and to get a better grasp of each airport's impact to the economy. The intent is to better understand how the facilities work together so that money can be invested in the right locations to meet future demands. The study, which will be completed in 2009, is paying particular attention to four high-population centers, including Southwest Washington.
Portland International Airport and other commercial fields garner most of the public attention. But general aviation airports are more numerous and Pearson is the busiest in Southwest Washington with 50,000 annual landings and departures. According to 2003 figures, it was 12th out of 140 statewide fields, based on the activity of planes registered to each of those facilities. Pearson was also ranked 26th in the state in terms of general operations, a list that includes Seattle and Spokane.
Pearson is only expected to get busier, primarily from visiting pilots.
Business connection
A USA Today story reported that two-thirds of the hours flown by private planes are for business reasons, and the number of those flying hours has increased 12.5 percent from 2001 to 2005, according to Federal Aviation Administration data.
Sean Loughran, Pearson's operations manager, said 60 percent of the traffic into the airport is considered transient -- pilots with planes not registered to Pearson. Half of the transient traffic was for business reasons.
The airport sits on 134 acres primary owned by the city with a small piece falling on National Park Service property and is part of the fort's historical designation. It is hemmed in by state Highway 14 to the south, a commercial district to the east and the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site to the north and south. It is home to 175 pilots that have registered their planes at Pearson.
Loughran is the airport's sole employee overseeing a $500,000 annual budget. About 94 percent of the revenue comes from leases on hangars, a maintenance operation and flight school.
Pearson is considered the oldest operating airport in the country, Loughran said, and has a who's who of pilots who have touched down on the field, including Tex Rankin, Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager and Valery Chkalov. Frederiksen said it's that mystique of pilots and flying that drew him to Pearson as a child.
"I was one of those kids at Pearson, I was 13, looking through the chain link fence and wondering how do I become a pilot," he said.
Frederiksen found the answer in the U.S. Air Force, becoming a flight instructor for the T-38 supersonic jet. But the vagabond lifestyle of the military and commercial pilots pushed Frederiksen into business. He earned a masters in business from Gonzaga University and returned to Vancouver, where he bought the family business, RSV Construction Services.
Then, in 1997, Gene Frederiksen asked his son what happened to his little boy's dream of flying. Ron Frederiksen promised his father, who was dying of cancer, that he'd fly again.
Today, Frederiksen donates time to Angel Flight, a collection of pilots who ferry people to medical appointments. He also donates his services to charity auctions as a way to demystify flying and explain the importance of general aviation airports.
"The busier Portland gets the more important Pearson is," he said.
Jonathan Nelson is a Columbian business writer. He can be reached at 360-759-8013 or via e-mail at
jonathan.nelson@columbian.com.
Did you know?
* Pearson Field is a nontowered airport, meaning pilots report to Portland International Airport when departing or arriving.
* The airport was named in the 1920s after Lt. Alexander Pearson, a Vancouver native and U.S. Army aviator.
* Pearson records about 50,000 landings and departures each year. The number is expected to increase as more business travelers chose private planes over commercial flights.
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