Spokane, Washington County Commissioners recently said the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs used outdated methodology to define the crash zone at Fairchild Air Force Base, near property where the Spokane Tribe wants to build an off-reservation casino complex. Previously commissioners asked the BIA to reject the tribe’s application to have the land taken into trust due to the negative impact it would on Fairchild.
Commissioners said if the BIA had used the correct methodology for the environmental impact statement, it clearly would have indicated the tribe’s proposed casino lies within the crash zone for flight patterns used by pilots during their Visual Flight Rules training missions.
The group Greater Spokane Incorporated Forward Fairchild has fought against the casino for more than a decade. Chairman Bill Savitz recently wrote, “Fairchild’s presence is responsible for thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual economic benefit in our community. Without a doubt, the Spokane region’s future is brighter with Fairchild in it.” He said the group’s position is that the base must be protected by preventing and removing encroachment such as “the type of high-density development proposed by the Spokane Tribe.”
Savitz said the Air Force has identified and presented its concerns regarding the proposed casino development, including aircraft flights over the site that are likely to generate noise complaints; light pollution; the proximity of the site to base air traffic patterns; and the large concentration of people in the proposed development’s building and the potential for an “aircraft crash/mishap.” Savitz said, “Factually, if any other developer were proposing to build an equivalent project on this site, they would not be allowed to do so under city of Spokane and county ordinances.”
Savitz said U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has spoken out in opposition to the Spokane Tribe’s project. He said Forward Fairchild awaits an opinion from U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. “Given the stakes, now is the time for all supporters of the base to weigh in,” Savitz said.
