Developer wins again
$64,000 Question: How many public golf courses are there in or near the city of Federal Way?
Answer: Right now, there is only one, but as of Oct. 1, 2008, the answer will be none. That’s right — zilch. Why? Simple…another “greedy” developer — in this case, North Shore Investors LLC (an arm of Soundbuilt Homes) has prevailed again over the needs of local golfers, nearby homeowners (including those living on the course) and the city and residents of Federal Way.
This is a clear example of where “greed prevailed over common sense.” A lot of dedicated and concerned citizens tried to fight the “inevitable” — and I say that because, as we found out the hard way when citizens (like myself) tried to fight the Christian Faith Center mega-church development and ultimately lost because, as the saying goes, “money talks.” The only thing they won is a “reprieve” (if you can call it that) for another golf season.
In the end, the North Shore area will turn into a “mini Los Angeles” which is not a good thing. I’m sure you have heard of the familiar term “win-win” situation; well, this is just the opposite.
Gary Robertson, Federal Way golfer
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Chronic complainers
The letter by Pat Gee in the the Dec. 15 paper (“Turning our city into a jet ghetto”) brings back memories of the past.
We lived in Pinewood by Woodmont Grade School for several years. Five miles from Sea-Tac, propeller planes coming in from the south were low enough at night to read the paper from the glare of their landing lights. We moved to Federal Way 35 years ago to somewhat quieter times.
But we are all forgetting that the Sea-Tac airport was there some time before a lot of us ever lived in the area. Remember the raceway in Kent was built in an area with no housing. People started moving in around it; now they can’t race past 10 p.m.
It’s another case of people infringing on their right to run a business without us complaining — think about it.
Leon Trenary, Federal Way
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Solution to noisy planes
In response to the Dec. 12 article (“Airplane rattles Marine Hills”) regarding a solution to the aircraft noise being heard in the early hours of the morning:
Once again the truth calls out from Proverbs: “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.”
The solution to the noise is not changing the flight path. The solution is not throwing away huge piles of money every year to lease “air rights” from Tacoma, Fife and Milton. The solution to the noise problem produced from these aircraft is called sound harmonic wave reduction technology. This is an acoustic sound technology whereby microphones are placed in various noisy areas of all types of machines, engines and motors, where the sound is recorded and an opposite sound is re-introduced into the same noisy area dramatically reducing the noise by upwards of 85 percent.
The military has been using the technology to make their equipment and helicopters super quiet. This technology is currently being introduced into small appliances such as mixers and blenders. The really great thing about this technology is the “side effects.” By making the appliances quieter, they are more energy efficient and more fuel efficient. Guess what? More efficiency saves money.
Do you want to spend huge amounts of money each year leasing “air rights” from surrounding cities? Or do you want to require a one-time $15,000 upgrade to these jet(s) that will make them more fuel efficient long term — which by the way will pay for the technology in savings — and create an almost stealth-like aircraft when flying over our cities? It makes more sense and it’s more economical to introduce the new technology into the aircraft.
Frosty E. Hardison, Federal Way
