By Jane Reuter, Colorado Community Media
Hundreds of Boulder County homeowners have filed a lawsuit against Jefferson County, claiming “inverse condemnation” linked to the impacts of Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.
Jefferson County owns and operates the airport.
The suit, filed in Boulder County District Court last month, seeks compensation for homeowners in the Rock Creek neighborhood who have been “deprived of the use and enjoyment of their homes and properties.”
Inverse condemnation is a legal remedy pursued by property owners when a governmental entity takes an action that damages or decreases the value of private property without obtaining ownership through eminent domain.
Jefferson County responded by saying it does not comment on pending litigation, according to the county’s Director of Public Affairs Cassie Pearce.
Attorney Sean Metherell, whose firm Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath is representing the more than 400 homeowners, said it is premature to comment.
“Jefferson County was just served today (Dec. 27), although it was filed last week,” he said. “We’re not making any comments at this time.”
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The suit, filed Dec. 21, is built around long-simmering issues, partially aired in a May 2022 district court ruling.
The suit alleges that the county allows flight operations — or avigation, the legal term — over properties, even though it doesn’t have avigation easements or other legal rights to do so. An avigation easement is an easement or right of overflight in the airspace above or near a particular property.
The suit says those legal agreements were in place at one time, but an increase in airport operations “overburdened these prior easements,” and nine of the original 29 easements were terminated by a district court judge. Despite that, “the county has continued its airport operations as though the terminated easements were still in full legal force and effect.”
That’s created excessive noise, vibrations, pollution and other issues for homeowners, according to the complaint, including exposure to leaded fuel. The airport announced in October plans to begin phasing out its use of leaded fuel.
While neighboring property owners said then that RMMA’s accelerated timeline on switching fuels wouldn’t have happened without their urging, former Airport Director Paul Anslow said that assertion was “absolutely not true.”
Anslow abruptly left his post in late November, and in the wake of his departure, half of the RMMA advisory board resigned.