Town and County respond to recent court decision regarding RMMA

Published on April 18, 2025

The communities that neighbor the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, including the Town of Superior and Boulder County, have increasingly been forced to contend with negative impacts caused by incessant aircraft operations utilizing the Airport. In 2024, an aircraft was overhead the Town every 90 seconds for the entire year (on average). These aircraft operations are primarily training flights conducting touch-and-go operations. As a result, several aircraft are constantly overhead, from sunrise to sunset, on nearly every day during the summer.

In an effort to protect their residents from the nuisance caused by these flights, the Town and Boulder County filed a lawsuit against Jefferson County (the owner, operator, and sponsor of the Airport) in early 2024. The Town and Boulder County sought judicial assistance in forcing Jefferson County to impose common sense restrictions on certain touch-and-go operations at the Airport. The Town and Boulder County explained that Jefferson County has the legal ability to address this important issue, but that Jefferson County refuses to exercise its ability to protect the communities that continue to be impacted by negative impacts stemming from the Airport.

On March 28, 2025, the Boulder County District Court dismissed the Town and Boulder County’s lawsuit. Despite finding that Jefferson County “could impose noise restrictions” to address problems arising from the problematic flights, the court determined that it did not have the power to order Jefferson County to take such steps as “any such order would constitute local regulation of an area preempted by the federal government.” A full copy of the court’s order is available on the Town of Superior’s website.

The Town and Boulder County are disappointed with the court’s ruling and are considering all options available to them, including appeal, to protect their residents. In addition, the Town and Boulder County are, again, asking Jefferson County to sit down and discuss a collaborative approach to assisting all communities negatively affected by the Airport. The FAA and the court have made it clear that Jefferson County has the tools necessary to address this important issue and thus it is imperative that Jefferson County begin actively taking steps to protect the communities suffering from the negative impacts of touch-and-go operations.

This court decision is unfortunate, but it is not going to stop the Town and Boulder County from taking all legal steps available to them to protect their residents.

SuperiorColorado.gov/RMMA