"But the airport was here first!"
In fact, Boulder was here first and the airport was built too close to the city. With a wall of mountains to the west, growth can only go towards the airport. There is no buffering land between homes and businesses and the airport property. This was not an issue until recently, when what appears to be explosive flight school and touring growth based at BDU increasing noise and air pollution to most of East and Northeast Boulder City and County. "Don't move near an airport if you don't want to hear the planes".
Recently the City of Boulder spent millions on updating the train track intersections so the conductors wouldn’t have to blast their horn. The trains come through maybe 3-5 times a day/night. The horns lasted a couple of minutes. No one scolded folks about moving near a |
train track. The community simply moved forward with a means to create a quieter environment. Boulder spent millions on this noise mitigation that was far less of a burden, pollutant, hazard and risk than what the airport is impressing on the community.
“Boulder Airport has been our quaint airport that has served the community during emergencies” This has been absolutely true in the past. However;
“But Boulder cares about the environment!"BDU fundamentally conflicts with Boulders notorious “green” image. As City staff regularly discuss climate impacts, the hundreds of circling leaded gas GA planes need to enter the conversation.
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Boulder Airport's Dangerous Location |
The above issues are here, and only getting worse as more people build in the City and County of Boulder. With the airport’s proximity to city center, landing and takeoff patterns are fundamentally dangerous. At best, if pilots are skilled and thoughtful, planes takeoff or land 300-600 feet above homes and businesses at times over 50 times a day.
This image captures one moment in time of a single airplane training “circuits” AKA “touch-and-goes” over North Boulder. This area is densely and fully populated with apartments, businesses, and trails. For reference, 28th Street is a major artery to enter and exit Boulder and is better known as highway 36 on regional maps. This entire area is located at around 5200’ in elevation, with planes flying 300-600 feet above their rooftops. |
The most prolific growth lands squarely on one BDU business providing touring, renting, and training, as well as FBO and the sale of leaded gas. There are a few other businesses based out of BDU and the list can be found in this public link. Touring and training planes out of BDU fly extensively over Boulder city and county as early as 6:30 AM until 9PM, disregarding the airport and city official noise abatement that requests no touch and goes before 8AM and after 5PM.
BDU pilots and visiting pilots violate or regularly barely meet FAA minimum flight elevation laws. Seen closer on another occasion captured from PublicVue website, is an example of touring planes flying under 900’ (under the federal requirement of 1,000’ or more over congested areas) over Boulder hotels, the post office, Boulder Humane Society, restaurants, trails, homes and more. |
More often than not pilots increasingly train or tour over delegated noise sensitive areas. They also do so below the 7500’ elevation request, and often below the 1000' federal minimum for flights over densely populated areas.
In this above image example, Boulder tour planes represent most of the purple flight patterns seen in this heatmap so thick you cannot see area names on the map. These display just one day (June 3rd, 2021) of Boulder-based planes over Boulder. The light blue lines are flights originating from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport that use BDU for touch-and-goes and other flight training. The red and green lines represent departures and arrivals at Denver International Airport.
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Brought to you by concerned citizens from all across the Front Range and beyond.
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