When the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) opened its doors 62 years ago in 1960, it was merely a dot on the map between Boulder and Denver, surrounded by near-empty prairie. Fast-forward to today: the population in neighboring communities has grown to ten times its size in the ’60s, and RMMA has only grown with it. The airport is now the third busiest in the state, launching hundreds of planes a day and hosting eight flight schools. The gradual increase in planes has created an elevated noise level that many property owners in Superior, Louisville, Broomfield, and other communities neighboring RMMA say they cannot tolerate.

This frustration has spurred two separate lawsuits against the airport–one from a Homeowners Association (HOA) in Superior and another filed by the Town of Superior itself.

“The homeowners’ lawsuit is focused on the loss of property value caused by these airplanes,” Jason Abair, a leader of the HOA, said. “And then the town of Superior, Boulder County lawsuit is focused on requiring Jefferson County to put in a rule that bans touch and go operations.”RMMA is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

According to the HOA lawsuit, the takeoffs and landings have increased from 170,000 in 2018 to over 260,000 in 2022, an escalation of 53% in only 4 years. Abair claims that plane operations have multiplied since then, with some operations taking place early in the morning and late at night.

“I can tell you that the summer of 2024 has been pretty brutal, with the touch-and-go flights starting as early as 5 a.m. and lasting well into the evening, after dark, and in some cases, even well after bedtime,” Abair said.

The RMMA’s proximity to neighboring communities causes hundreds of households to deal with the noise on a daily basis. Abair says this impacts daily activities for homeowners, and in some cases can hinder the productivity of people who work from home.

“I work from home, and I’m dealing with these low-flying aircraft operations that have done everything from interrupting conference calls with my clients to making it just a constant grating,” he said.

However, the sound isn’t the only problem homeowners have with the airport. Lead pollution from aviation fuel has also become another significant concern, with planes flying just 500 feet over homes daily. The HOA lawsuit indicates that nine members of the Superior community have had their homes tested for lead. Every single sample came back positive.

“The fuel used at RMMA is the only continued use of leaded fuel in the United States, which is crazy,” Abair said.

Homeowners and the Town of Superior have successfully secured the RMMA’s attention, but no effective changes have been made. Representatives from Broomfield, Westminster, Superior, Boulder County, and Louisville established a noise roundtable in January of 2021. Members attempted to negotiate a compromise between property owners and the airport.

Following over three years of meetings, the roundtable was dissolved on May 2, 2024, after failing to come to a resolution.

Former airport director Paul Anslow, who left RMMA in November of 2023, saw the noise roundtable as a laughing matter, calling local residents “nut jobs.”

Through a public records request, KUNC News, a community radio in Northern Colorado, obtained a 2021 transcript from Jefferson County documenting Anslow’s private conversation with a colleague. In it, Anslow said, “We laugh because we get nut jobs who complain about the airport, and want to shut us down and do all that stuff.”
Anslow also claimed that the noise roundtable didn’t cost the airport a penny, and that funding came instead from homeowner pockets.

“I want the noise roundtable members to waste their money and time. Because here’s the deal–Centennial has had a roundtable for twenty-plus years, and nothing gets done,” Anslow said. “It will probably take five years and a couple hundred thousand dollars of taxpayers’ money that’s wasted, and I get to sit there.”

When contacted for a response to the leaked transcript, the Media Director for Jefferson County explained that Paul Anslow is no longer associated with the airport, and that Jefferson County doesn’t stand behind any of his statements.

“The county believes that the community noise roundtable was a positive way to engage with the community on issues of noise related to the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport,” the Media Director said.

The Mix was unable to reach Paul Anslow for a response.

The airport has made some efforts to relieve the problems the lawsuits target. RMMA administration created an official noise complaint form and issued recommended–not mandatory–noise abatement policies; however, no further action has been taken so far.

Despite residents’ frustration in the communities RMMA, many still find value in the airport–especially within the flight schools it hosts.

Seth Dykstra, a former Flyotes club member, earned his private pilot’s license by completing hundreds of training hours through Western Flight School at the airport.

“To become a commercial airline pilot, you need to go through a minimum of 1,000 hours or a minimum of 1,500 hours, depending on the regulations,” Dykstra said. “It’s a lot of flight time.”

Other Flyote members have trained at this airport as well while working toward their licenses.

“We have a lot of kids at this school, and we have a lot of interest in this community in becoming a pilot,” club sponsor and aviation teacher Eric Gordon said. “It is actually a great career, and I encourage a lot of kids to pursue it. And they need a place to do their flight training.”

An airport so close to Monarch students’ homes gives them easy access to the necessary training for an aviation career. Dykstra found RMMA invaluable in the pursuit of his dream to become a commercial airline pilot. While he recognizes the homeowners’ complaints and understands their frustration, he feels that there’s not much flexibility for change.

“When pilots are departing, once we’re at those safe altitudes and we are able to turn, we try our best to avoid Superior if possible,” Dykstra said. “But sometimes it’s more of an aerodynamics thing. We just can’t climb fast enough, and we’re unable to avoid the town.”

Gordon agrees with Dykstra’s worries about flight safety and that it’s difficult for them to avoid flying over the surrounding communities.

“It is tough when you’re talking about flight training because those are often the pilots with the least experience, and you don’t really want to pressure them to fly a certain way that’s unsafe just because of noise concerns,” Gordon said.

Still, homeowners like Abair will continue their fight to end the persistent noise above their homes. He hopes others in the community will engage in the effort by speaking to those who can make a difference.

“I think the most important thing for everyone to do is to get involved and to keep bringing this issue up to your local, state, and federal representatives, to make them aware that there’s a need for solutions to this problem that just has been going on for entirely too long,” Abair said. “To get anything done, it’s going to require court action and government action. So keep talking up. Speak up to the right people.”