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DENVER (KDVR) — After a lawsuit was filed against the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, opinions from impacted residents not involved in the lawsuit, as well as pilots who fly at the airport, have flooded in.
FOX31 previously aired a story where an aviation expert from the Colorado Aviation Business Association weighed in on the lawsuit, which was filed against Jefferson County on behalf of around 400 people who live near the airport.
“I’ve lived in my home for 30 years. And until about the end of 2017, the beginning of 2018, We were well aware of this airport, but we lived in harmony with it. It was not a problem,” Charlene Willey, a resident, said.
Willey said her late husband was actually an air traffic controller and loved everything aviation.
“We certainly did not have a prejudice,” she said. “But it was in 2018 [that] we really noticed a change.”
The airport has seen an increase in traffic, which means more frequent noise.
Neighbors who moved in close to the airport said they’ve signed easements that promised RMMA would limit airport expansion and in return, the community would accept a certain noise level.
“I can totally understand their complaint about the noise,” pilot Gordon Feliciano Jr., said. “I still scratch my head, though, you know, because they chose to live in those areas.”
Feliciano said the airport’s noise abatement program, designed to minimize noise to nearby homes, impacts how he flies in and out of the airport.
“Now that requires us to prepare the aircraft a little earlier and also to maneuver the aircraft a little more aggressively,” said Feliciano.
He said it’s a tricky spot because of the proximity to Centennial Airport and Denver International Airport because a lot of the air space overlaps. This limits where they can go.
“This airspace is restricted to 10,000 feet, so I cannot climb above 10,000 feet unless I have a clearance from Denver from the air traffic controller. And then once we’re outside, you will see [a blue line]. That’s the end of Denver’s Class B airspace,” Feliciano said.
Residents said not only is the noise constant but they are worried about the impacts of the leaded fuel.
Willey said she knew she was living in a “critical zone” for the airport.
She said the noise didn’t seem so bothersome until around 2018 when there was a spike in air traffic. She now believes her health issues are a result of this increase.
“My blood lead level is very elevated, even for an adult. If I were a child, it would be a cause, probably, for a lifetime injury,” said Willey.
The airport has vowed to switch to unleaded fuel in the coming years.
Meanwhile, three major flight schools operate at this airport, which has helped pilots like Feliciano’s son launch their careers.
He said there’s a pilot shortage going on right now, and that his son was able to take advantage of that to launch his career.
“That’s how he was able to build his career in order and get his position,” Feliciano said. “But he had to go through that whole training curriculum to do that.”
There are at least two things that both sides are in agreement on: The land surrounding the airport was never supposed to be developed for homes, and that flight traffic has increased at the airport in recent years.
The neighbors that were talked to were not plaintiffs in the lawsuit. FOX31 reached out to several plaintiffs of the lawsuit and the lawyer who filed, but they did not provide comment.
FOX31 will continue to follow the outcome of the lawsuit.
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