暗黑爆料

Five of the eight cities and counties serving on the so-called community noise roundtable have hit eject, citing a lack of progress and trust in the airport's owner, Jefferson County. The turbulence had been building for months.

Citing frustrations with airport-owner Jefferson County over a lack of progress in reducing or addressing airport noise, the Louisville City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to join a growing effort to dissolve the roundtable.

A decision on whether to dissolve the roundtable was postponed until May 2 to give two cities on the roundtable more time to get feedback from their community members. Some cities frustrated by a lack of progress are already heading for the exit door, and support for the group鈥檚 future appears to be tenuous.

Last week the Broomfield City Council voted unanimously to leave the Community Noise Roundtable, a coalition of local communities working to address noise issues at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. The move comes after Boulder County, the town of Superior and hundreds of area residents filed lawsuits against Jefferson County, which owns the airport. Chris Wood, publisher and editor at BizWest, joined KUNC鈥檚 Nikole Robinson Carroll to dig into the story.

City leaders and some of its residents are blasting the so-called community noise roundtable as a waste of time and money. The airport is owned by Jefferson County and residents in neighboring communities have been raising concerns for years about the impacts of airport noise on their health and wellbeing.

The governments of Boulder County and the town of Superior say increasing operations at the airport near Broomfield, especially training flights for student pilots, are causing 鈥渆xcessive noise,鈥� dropping leaded fuel over their residents鈥� homes and threatening their 鈥渉ealth, safety and welfare.鈥�

Rapid growth at several airports, including Rocky Mountain Metropolitan in northern Colorado, has sparked lawsuits, thousands of noise complaints and health concerns about airborne lead pollution in neighboring communities.

One idea under review aims to reduce noise by altering the recommended daytime flight pattern, with more planes turning toward open space in Boulder County during takeoff instead of neighborhoods in Superior.

Paul Anslow called residents living near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport 鈥渘ut jobs鈥� and belittled their concerns about the airport鈥檚 impact on their neighborhood, according to a 2021 transcript of a private conversation given to KUNC 暗黑爆料 as part of a public records request.

After five years as director of the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, Paul Anslow has left the role with little explanation for the sudden departure.