BOULDER, Colorado — The Boulder Airport Association has launched a petition to save the 96-year-old Boulder Municipal Airport (KBDU).
The petition is at SaveBoulderAirport.com.
Later in 2024, the Boulder City Council will vote whether to keep the airport open or seek to reuse the land for new urban housing developments, according to association officials. The petition urges the Boulder City Council to vote “no” to closing the airport.
“The airport has played an important role in fighting wildfires and other environmental disasters,” officials said in a press release. “The Fourmile Canyon fire and most recently the Cal-Wood and Lefthand Canyon Fires were fought by fleets of large helicopters operating from the Boulder airport.”
“During the 2013 flood, more than 1,200 residents were rescued from the Boulder airport in the second largest airlift operation in US history after Hurricane Katrina,” they continued. “Medevac and search and rescue operations are conducted from the airport daily.”
“Closing the airport would not just put our community at risk, it would come at a massive cost because the city would have to compensate the FAA for the land that the City of Boulder purchased with FAA funds,” said Carl Lawrence, president of the Boulder Airport Association. “The costs for the city and its taxpayers are likely to far exceed a hundred million dollars. That’s before even one new home could be built on the site.”
In a 2023 letter, the FAA declared that the city has a perpetual obligation to keep the airport open and that FAA approval would be required to close it.
“It is FAA’s policy to strengthen the national airports system and not to support the closure of public airports,” the letter said.
For more information: SaveBoulderAirport.com
This airport was built at a very different time in Boulder’s history. Today, Boulder is a community that exists for residents to live and work and the existing airport and the enormous volume of land it occupies is not congruent with the Boulder of today and the city’s present day needs.
This airport will be closed and the City Council will vote for it to be converted to align with the direction Boulder has taken, not priorities of the past or of the select few. Once closed, this land and its new evolution will bring enormous value to North-Central Boulder and I personally cannot wait to see the finished product! Remember the closure of Stapleton? Out of that came a wonderful community and the necessary commercial and residential resources that were needed. Open space, walking/biking trails….Stapleton did it on a much larger scale so Boulder will easily make this even more beautiful and of higher quality.
Cheers to the future of the new Boulder that will thrive and we can all enjoy!!!
No one wants to get rid of the airport. What is needed is respect and safety for the residents who live in the area. That means limiting the number of flying planes at one time, reducing the amount of toxic lead, and changing the noise hours of flying. Flying schools can also move or expand to an area that is now zoned for non- residential. There are so many options. Let’s focus on compromising solutions.
Sad thing is, they’ll build the houses next to the airport, and in ten years the airport will close because of noise complaints.
As we fondly referred to as “The People’s Republic of Boulder”..Seat of Colorado liberalism.
Good luck with as anything logical or constructive.
I have no information as to this instance. That said the airport closures I am familiar with had little to do with “socialist agenda s”. Quite the opposite, check the developers that will benefit after they insist on public funds being used to close the airport. It will be public funds as well for site reclamation before construction can begin. Then of course they will insist and be granted tax abatement for years on the for profit “private” development.
Someone’s been drinking the cool-aid?
What is not mentioned is the number of pilots the field has produced for civil and military aviation. I received my pilot certificate at Boulder in 1964 and flew for the USAF and continue to fly today. It all started at the Boulder Airport. Save this valuable resource to our nation.