The 2024 local elections in Boulder have just become significantly less controversial.
Organizers of the ballot committee Airport Neighborhood Campaign announced on August 27 that they have withdrawn their controversial proposal to shut down the Boulder Municipal Airport from the November ballot. A separate but related proposal to convert the site to affordable housing, which was also on the ballot, will also be withdrawn.
It would have been the first time in the airport’s nearly 100-year history that voters had decided to close the city airport. The measures emerged as one of the most controversial local issues of this election season.
But a potential legal battle with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had always overshadowed the effort. The FAA provided the city with grants to purchase land and maintain runways, and according to the federal agency, those grants included assurances that the city would keep the airport operating and maintained “in perpetuity.” So even if the ballot measures had passed, it was unclear what would happen next.
The turning point for activists to abandon their fight at the ballot box came when the city of Boulder decided to take on the FAA, filing a lawsuit in July challenging the agency’s claim that the city must keep its airport operating indefinitely, sources said.
Since the lawsuit was filed, the campaign says many Boulder residents from all political camps have said they would rather wait for the outcome of the Boulder vs. FAA before voting on the future of the airport site. Opponents of the ballot proposal have cited the potentially costly and lengthy litigation with the FAA as a primary reason not to close the airport. The case will likely take years to resolve.
“The lawsuit is a real game changer,” said Laura Kaplan, who led the effort to close the airport through ballot measures. “It’s very valuable to bring the litigation to a close and understand that we actually have the right to close this airport and put the site to another use.”
The lawsuit is about whether the city’s federal grants it received decades ago for land purchases obligate Boulder to keep the airport operating indefinitely. The city claims it accepted two FAA grants for land purchases in 1959 and 1977, both of which included a maximum term of 20 years. The city also claims that other grants it has received for easements, the last in 1991, do not oblige it to keep the airport operating permanently. According to the city, it can close the airport, but since it last received a grant in 2020, the earliest possible closure date would likely be 2040.
“The FAA’s position not only conflicts with the express terms of its grant agreements with the city, but also represents an unconstitutional overreach,” Boulder’s lawyers said in the lawsuit. They argued that the FAA’s stance “strives away the city’s ability to provide for the public health, safety and welfare of its citizens and clouds the city’s unconditional title to the land on which the airport is located.”
Boulder Municipal Airport was established in 1928 as a dirt runway on the northeast side of the city. Today, surveys indicate it is used primarily by private pilots of small piston-engine aircraft, trainees, glider pilots and scientific researchers. Proponents of closing the airport cite concerns about noise pollution, lead pollution from the leaded fuel used by small aircraft and the need for land for residential development.
Opponents of the closure include pilots, the Boulder Chamber, business owners and other airport users. Many formed their own ballot committee, the Boulder Airport Association-Save Boulder Airport, to lobby for the airport’s preservation, emphasizing its value as a source of sales tax revenue and as a resource for emergency response. The airport is used for training, rescue operations and wildfire suppression, but city fire officials point out that it is not essential for firefighting operations because the city is near the larger Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.
Jan Burton, chair of the Save Boulder Airport committee, said that while they touted the benefits of keeping the airport open, they saw support grow. “Our campaign had tremendous momentum,” Burton said. “I think all the indicators showed we could have prevented these actions.”
Burton said the Boulder airport community is largely in favor of moving to lead-free options as soon as possible and is working to address the noise and air traffic issues cited in ballot proposals as reasons for the closure. “We are committed to making this airport a good community center,” Burton said.
Studies have shown that more frequent landings and takeoffs of lead-fueled aircraft lead to higher blood lead levels in local children. In 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that lead exposure from piston-engine aircraft can impair cognitive function and lower IQ and academic performance, with no safe exposure limit identified. Andrew McKenna, president of Journeys Aviation, the fuel supplier to Boulder Municipal Airport, previously told the Boulder Reporting Lab that he remains unconvinced by these concerns.
Kaplan said if she and others advocating for the airport closure had known about the city’s impending lawsuit, they would have waited to collect signatures for ballot measures. Solid answers about the city’s stance toward the FAA would make the effort more tangible. And while the city waits for a court date, Kaplan believes many more questions surrounding the airport closure will be answered, such as how the airport will be funded over the next 16 years without FAA grants, assuming the city foregoes more FAA money, and what redevelopment of the property would entail.
“Repurposing the airport is a long-term project,” Kaplan said. “Who knows what direction it will take in the future. But let’s wait until the litigation is resolved, affirm our right to close the airport, and then see how it goes.”
In its fight against the FAA, the city has proposed two possible visions for the airport to the Boulder City Council. Both scenarios involve expansion. In one scenario, the airport would remain open indefinitely and rely on private investment for capital improvements and maintenance. In the other scenario, the airport would close, but not without first offering 30- to 40-year leases to spur development and generate short-term revenue.
The campaign to close the airport said Boulder has time to make that decision as a community. “The campaign for ‘housing for people, not parking for airplanes’ is a marathon, not a sprint,” it said, and the campaign is “prepared to re-petition the ballot measure after the litigation is concluded.”
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