The so-called community noise roundtable at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport is on the verge of being cancelled because it's losing support from several communities serving on it.
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.
Louisville's representative on the roundtable will vote to disband the group at it's next meeting May 2. If that motion fails, Louisville will still end its membership.
“Rather than being something that's particularly constructive, (the noise roundtable) has been a smokescreen that Jefferson County has used to continue to pretend that we're having some influence over anything,” Mayor Chris Leh said. “And we're not. We're not represented down there. And they're making decisions. And it's absolutely horrible intergovernmental relations.”
Other council members called the noise roundtable ‘dysfunctional,’ ‘badly done’ and ‘not having any influence.’
Leh encouraged Louisville residents to take their complaints about the airport directly to Jefferson County and airport officials.
“What has been the problem all the way along is they have felt absolutely no pressure from anyone and thumbing their nose at everyone,” he said. “And I don't say these things lightly. I don't like to say these things. But the behavior that we have seen out of them for years, is just not good policy and practice. And it's just not what we ought to tolerate any further.”
The noise roundtable was formed three years ago to address noise complaints from residents living near the growing airport. But now five of the eight cities and counties serving on the roundtable are either bailing or expressing a desire to disband it unless major reforms are made.
They’re citing similar concerns about a lack of trust with Jefferson County and the group being dysfunctional.
Residents and community leaders who support bailing have also been citing comments from the airport’s former director, Paul Anslow, as a reason to leave.
Anslow also said he wanted governments participating in the noise roundtable to ‘waste their money and time’ trying to reduce airport noise.
“Cause here’s the deal, Centennial (airport) had a (noise) roundtable for 20 plus years, nothing gets done,” Anslow was quoted as saying in the transcript. “It just makes people feel happy that they’re part of the roundtable and they get to bitch.”
Communities eject
Anslow’s comments have offended several community leaders and residents around the airport who have spent three years and thousands of taxpayer dollars at the roundtable meetings trying to reduce excessive aircraft noise.
"To have somebody who is, you know, the director of the airport, making a statement like that, I don't see how we can continue to participate personally," Louisville Council Member Dietrich Hoefner said. "I just don't see how we can in good conscience, continue to spend our time and money on something that was so badly done."
Superior and Boulder County also cited Anslow's comments belittling the roundtable and its attendees in a recent lawsuit against the airport and Jefferson County aiming to reduce noise from training flights.
Meanwhile, support for the roundtable has been steadily eroding ahead of a May 2 meeting to decide its fate.
Broomfield and Boulder County were the first members to announce plans to leave the roundtable this spring, citing a lack of progress and trust with Jefferson County.
Lafayette’s noise roundtable representative said at the group’s last meeting on April 4 he also would support dissolving the group because it currently lacks power to significantly change airport operations that might reduce noise.
And Superior’s town council says it will bail too unless major reforms are made to the roundtable.
Westminster, Arvada and Jefferson County are the only members currently advocating to continue the roundtable.
They say it gives residents a forum to discuss airport concerns and governments a place to talk about potential solutions.
"Jefferson County continues to support the efforts and accomplishments of the RMMA Community Noise Roundtable," county spokesperson Cassie Pearce said Wednesday in a statement responding to Louisville's planned departure.
"In the last couple of years the (noise roundtable) has improved the voluntary noise abatement procedures, introduced a procedure to request pilots use the primary runway during nighttime operations to avoid overflying residential neighborhoods, and secured funding from the Federal Aviation Administration for a Part 150 Airport Noise Compatibility Study," said Pearce.
She added the county hopes "that we can continue to use this venue to effectively engage with the community and vital stakeholders on important airport issues including noise abatement."
List of demands
Superior, which lies at the northern end of the runway, is currently coming up with a list of demands and reforms they would need to have approved to continue their membership in the group.
Mayor Mark Lacis suggested Jefferson County should start paying for all of the roundtable’s work and lead it.
Other town council members have proposed trying to have Federal Aviation Administration representatives regularly attend meetings.
“I'm open to any and all suggestions as to how the (noise roundtable) could be restructured to make it effective,” Mayor Lacis told KUNC last week. “However, given what the former airport director Paul Anslow has said about the (roundtable) in the past, specifically, that he wanted neighboring governments to “waste their time and money” on the roundtable, at a minimum, one way to correct this particular structural problem would be to have Jefferson County fund everything in connection with the noise roundtable, including member dues, staffing costs, and any other expenses.”
Pearce said Jefferson County would consider the request.
If reforms aren’t accepted, a majority of Superior's town board appears ready to head for the exit with Louisville, Boulder County and Broomfield.
Cities and counties currently pay $3,600 a year in dues to Jefferson County to facilitate the noise roundtable.
Hundreds of residents who live near the airport and under flight path have packed community meetings in recent years to talk about how aircraft noise has made it hard for them to sleep, work or enjoy their homes.
They've also raised concerns at roundtable meetings about lead in aviation fuel.
A vote on whether to dissolve the noise roundtable is expected at the group’s next meeting on May 2.
The group would also dissolve automatically if one more city or county decides to withdraw on its own.
Jefferson County Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp has been defending the roundtable’s work as calls for its termination have been growing.
She said the group gives residents a place to voice their concerns and questioned where they would go if the noise roundtable dissolves.
She also said the roundtable has provided a forum for neighboring cities to weigh in on the airport’s growth plans. She added the roundtable has helped facilitate changes to nighttime flight patterns in an effort to reduce noise.
Roundtable critics have said those conversations have occurred outside of the noise roundtable.
They also say residents still would have other outlets outside of the noise roundtable to complain about airport noise and lobby federal representatives and Jefferson County officials to make changes.
Acting airport director Stephanie Corbo spoke in support of continuing the roundtable earlier this month.
“The reason why the FAA encourages community noise roundtables is to come up with solutions,” she said. “And so what this group does is it allows ideas to come forward either even from the community, and for us to have consensus from all of our communities.”
The county is also currently in the process of recruiting and hiring a new director and initiating a study of noise impacts around the airport.
