This story first appeared in a Colorado Community Media newspaper. Support CCM’s neighborhood news.
A community group and neighboring municipalities asked the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport to pump the brakes after the airport published a draft of a new strategic business plan
The airport identified about 200 acres of land where it can develop new facilities to help keep up with future industry demands. For the airport’s many neighbors who regularly complain about noise pollution, among other issues, the prospect of more planes and larger planes are the last things they want to see materialize.
The strategic business plan has been controversial for months, but a more concerted outcry followed the airport’s release of a draft plan on Aug. 1.
“Despite our best efforts to communicate our concerns to elected officials and others charged with the management of RMMA, public welfare is being ignored in favor of the business interests that guide the development and expansion of RMMA,” wrote Save Our Skies Alliance, a community group, to the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners in a letter on Aug. 5.
The group, which created an online petition that received at least 1,500 signatures, wrote the commissioners in advance of a board meeting on Aug. 10 that featured a discussion on the strategic business plan. Jefferson County owns and operates the airport.