NEW! ANC Endorsements for 2025 City Council race

ANC in 2025 - Still fighting for our rights and our future

On July 26, 2024, the City of Boulder filed a surprise lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The goal of the lawsuit is to clarify the duration of the city’s obligation to the FAA to run a municipal airport.

In response to this turn of events, the Airport Neighborhood Campaign (ANC) withdrew the 2024 ballot measures “Repurpose Our Runways” & “Runways to Neighborhoods” to allow time to clarify the city's legal position. 

On September 15, 2025, the federal judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds, stating that no injury to the city had yet occurred. The judge did not rule on the heart of the case, which is who controls the airport site after 2040 when the city's current grant obligations expire. The FAA claims that the city must run the airport "in perpetuity". The city argues that our obligations to run the airport expire in 2040. The case was dismissed "without prejudice" which means the city is free to appeal or refile when the case is more "ripe". 

The campaign for “housing for people, not parking for planes” is a marathon, not a sprint. The ANC network advocates that the city keep its legal options open, refuse further grant funding that would obligate the city to run the airport past 2040, and pursue legal clarification when the time is right.

The ANC stands ready to re-petition the ballot measures at the appropriate time.

We are proud of campaign accomplishments to date including: 

  • Demonstrated broad community support for letting the people of Boulder decide the airport's future, including thousands of verified City of Boulder voters. 

  • Advanced the community conversation about the potential to repurpose the airport site for a vibrant, beautiful, visionary new neighborhood.

  • Elevated community awareness of serious impacts of private aviation (such as noise, airborne lead pollution, and climate change impacts), the airport’s failing finances, and the potential of the site to serve a higher and better community purpose. 

  • Elicited a higher level of city government attention and public scrutiny regarding Boulder municipal airport (BDU) management, operations, and future, including the potential to decommission and repurpose. 

  • Spurred public promises from airport tenants to actively pursue cleaner, quieter, more environmentally friendly practices while the airport remains open. 


The ANC will continue working with the Boulder community on the following actions related to BDU: 

  • Advocate for clarification of the city's legal rights, obligations, and timeline regarding operation of the airport.

  • Oppose the city taking any grants that would prevent or delay decommissioning. 

  • Advocate for further exploration of repurposing costs and opportunities to meet Boulder's affordable housing needs at the airport site.

  • Advocate for harm reduction measures such as compliance with noise abatement and use of unleaded aviation fuel. 

  • Advocate for improved transparency and accountability regarding airport activities.

  • Correct disinformation about the airport and repurposing.

  • Oppose further development of the airport site that would make repurposing the airport more expensive and wasteful, and which would increase aviation traffic and impacts. This includes opposing airport leases extending past May, 2040, and opposing  “lease relief” that would provide a windfall to private aviation at the expense of city taxpayers.

  • Advocate for creative ideas for revenue generation at the airport site, consistent with the points above, e.g. solar power generation. 

  • Advocate for the airport to be financially independent of grants and subsidies with aviation “paying its own way” to the maximum extent possible, consistent with the points above. 

 

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