By now, we’ve all seen the Laurelhurst Community Club’s statement on the helicopter noise and their hurried insistence that the council is not party to the conditional use permit that Seattle Children’s Hospital has for the helipad and helicopter landings.
The combined actions of taking down their website and then putting out a blanket statement really raised some giant red flags to me, so I made use of my MLIS degree (the one I don’t use for my actual job) and started doing some digging in a few places where the paper trail can be found. I don’t have all the information I’m looking for yet, but I have enough for this post.
The place I looked first was the recorder’s website and I did find some things – like, for instance, why the parking lot at Children’s in Seattle is such an absolute nightmare (they’re not allowed to expand it because of… reasons).
The city archives is where the oldest receipts are, not all of which are yet digitized. But the link in this post is text of the findings and recommendations of the hearing examiner for the conditional use permit. Of particular note:
In 1992, records showed that a full 25% of the children who were flown to the hospital died. 1/4. One out of four. This information was known to the people at Laurelhurst fighting for fewer helicopter landings. A few gems:
“The Medical Review Committee shall consist of five members, including two representatives of the Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC). Committee members shall be compensated at the rate of $100 for each landing review.”
And also: “The standards established by Airlift NW for air transport and for landing at the CHMC campus are designed to ensure that only those children with life threatening illness are transported. It is also important to note that there is no evidence of abuse of this service under the self-monitoring system and that the likelihood of future abuse is diminished by the monitoring requirement of the Medical Review team.”
LCC’s recent statement states: “The Seattle Children’s Hospital is currently subject to a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) – established more than 30 years ago with the City of Seattle. This Conditional Use Permit stipulates that helipad access be guaranteed for life-threatening emergencies, but not for non-urgent transport.
LCC is not a party to the Conditional Use Permit and was not contacted regarding any concerns with the terms of this agreement.”
Maybe I just don’t understand what makes someone a party to something.
submitted by /u/tatertotlauncher
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