Locals Push for Renewed Easement, Ban on Leaded Fuels

Sensing blood in the water, legal sharks near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport have filed suit looking to restrict airport activity near their communities.

The public-use airport was established in 1960 near Broomfield, Colorado, and is now the closest port to downtown Denver. Like so many airports before it, the area has been subsumed by a never-ending quantity of urban sprawl building up around it, only to find itself the focus of its new neighbor's displeasure. It sports a set of parallel, paved runways, 9,000 and 7,000 feet respectively, as well as a smaller 3,600-ft crosswind runway. Its location continues to be a popular stop for larger jets, business travelers, and firefighters working to the west of the field.

The site has, as is often the case, taken continual flack from locals under every different avenue they could find. The biggest gripe remains the noise, where residents attend the noise complaint board to voice their displeasure with local flight training activity and general aviation approaches. Seeing limited success in other hippified areas in the country, they began aiming at the leaded avgas used at the field. Now ousted (but technically resigned) airport manager Paul Anslow accelerated the change to unleaded avgas last year, hoping to lop off that avenue of attack in limiting airport access.

In the past, easements had been granted to prevent flight over sections of the local suburban sprawl, but those have expired now. Teary-eyed mothers and watchful binocular operators continue their vigil today, carefully scrying tail numbers and filing complaints about "looping", "low-flying", and "dangerous" aircraft operating nearby. Their new lawsuit would reinstate the easement, blocking GA activity above some neighborhoods.

FMI: www.jeffco.us/755/Airport