Why Superior Must See the RMMA Case Through

From Mark Lacis, Town of Superior Mayor. See original post here.

As my time as Mayor and on the Superior Town Council comes to an end, I’ve been thinking a lot about the issues the next Council will inherit. I’m most concerned about issues related to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.

For many people in Superior, RMMA is the number one quality-of-life issue in our community. Residents deal with repetitive flight-school operations, aircraft circling over the same neighborhoods again and again, persistent noise, and concerns about lead emissions from piston-engine aircraft. For the people most directly affected, this affects the use and enjoyment of their homes and their day-to-day quality of life.

As I prepare to leave office, I think it is important to explain how we got here, what the Town has actually done, what the lawsuit is really about, and why I believe the next Town Council needs to see this effort through.

We did not start with a lawsuit

Superior has been actively working on RMMA issues since at least 2018. We hired aviation noise consultants, commissioned baseline assessment reports and recommendations, surveyed residents, studied flight corridors and potential operational changes, worked with neighboring communities, and helped develop RMMA's voluntary Fly Quiet Program. We met with the airport director and the flight schools to try and come to some collaborative solution.

When those efforts failed to produce meaningful change, Superior helped create the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport Community Noise Roundtable in 2020. I served as its first Chair from 2021-2022. The Roundtable brought together local governments from around the region to discuss flight patterns, landing fees, nighttime operations, noise-sensitive areas, leaded aviation fuel, flight-school activity and other possible mitigation measures.

The underlying problem, however, never changed. Superior does not own RMMA. Jefferson County does. We cannot regulate aircraft operations, establish an airport curfew, tell pilots where to fly, direct the FAA, or vote the Jefferson County Commissioners out of office. By 2023, the Town was making increasingly direct requests to Jefferson County, RMMA and the FAA for operational changes, including implementing landing fees, nighttime restrictions, and actions relating to phasing out leaded aviation fuel. But the relationship deteriorated when former RMMA leadership publicly referred to concerned residents as "nut jobs" and brazenly spoke about wanting Roundtable participants to waste their time and tax-payer money. In May 2024, the Community Noise Roundtable voted 5-3 to dissolve.

So when people ask why Superior went to court, this history matters. We spent approximately six years using consultants, studies, voluntary programs, direct negotiations, regional collaboration and advocacy before Superior and Boulder County filed suit in March 2024. Litigation was not our first choice. It was a last resort.

What the lawsuit is actually about

The Town and Boulder County allege that repetitive piston-engine touch-and-go operations originating out of RMMA create a public nuisance through excessive noise and lead pollution.

Importantly, no court has yet decided whether the conditions actually constitute a public nuisance. Most of the litigation so far has focused on a threshold question: whether federal aviation law prevents a Colorado court from providing any relief at all.

That distinction is important. Superior cannot use its local police powers to adopt an ordinance to regulate aircraft or the airport. But Jefferson County is not simply another local government. It owns the airport, and airport proprietors possess authority over their assets that neighboring communities like Superior do not. And that leads to the central issue in our case: if an airport proprietor possesses authority to address an alleged nuisance but refuses to exercise that authority, can a court ever require it to act?

For Superior, that question matters because if the answer is no, it is difficult to understand what remedy an impacted neighboring community actually has.

What has happened in court

After Superior and Boulder County filed the lawsuit in March 2024, Jefferson County removed it to federal court. We successfully fought to return the case to Colorado state court. The Boulder County District Court later dismissed the case on federal preemption grounds. The court did not decide whether the alleged noise and lead pollution constituted a public nuisance. We appealed.

In March 2026, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against us on the noise claim. The court recognized that Jefferson County, as the airport proprietor, possesses authority relating to airport noise, but concluded that a Colorado court could not compel Jefferson County to exercise that authority. That is the ruling Superior and Boulder County have asked the Colorado Supreme Court to review. Broomfield, Lafayette and Louisville have supported our effort through an amicus brief because the legal question has implications well beyond Superior.

The Court of Appeals also reversed the dismissal of our lead-emissions claim, so that portion of the case remains alive. Jefferson County is seeking review of that ruling, while Superior and Boulder County are seeking review of the noise ruling.

Despite a perceived lack of progress on the litigation, the proceedings to date have narrowed the issues, clarified the legal authority Jefferson County possesses as the airport proprietor, preserved the lead claim, and brought us to the specific unresolved question about whether neighboring communities have any judicial remedy when an airport owner has the authority to address an alleged nuisance but declines to do so.

But it is important to recognize that the litigation has already produced a significant result. We now have two separate courts making clear that Jefferson County, as the owner and proprietor of RMMA, has the authority to take action to address airport noise. For years, Jefferson County has tried to avoid responsibility for the impacts of flight school operations by essentially saying, “We would love to help, but our hands are tied by federal preemption.” That excuse no longer holds up. Both the trial court and the Court of Appeals rejected the notion that federal law leaves Jefferson County powerless to act. Whatever happens in the remaining litigation, that is an important and lasting outcome: Jefferson County can no longer credibly claim that there is simply nothing it can do.

What has it cost?

Through 2026, Superior and Boulder County have spent approximately $1.1 million on this effort. Superior's share is about $650,000 and Boulder County's share is about $450,000. Going forward, the legal costs are being split equally.

That is a lot of money. Future Councils should scrutinize litigation expenses and continue evaluating whether the case is worth pursuing. Sunk costs, by themselves, are never a reason to keep litigating. But they are also not a reason to quit. The relevant question is whether continuing from where we stand today makes sense. We have an active lead claim, a significant legal question that we have asked the Colorado Supreme Court to review, Boulder County sharing future costs equally, and neighboring communities supporting our position.

Superior has also continued trying to engage Jefferson County while the case is pending. But Jefferson County has said it will not meet with us unless Superior dismisses its appeal and waits for a separate lawsuit filed by hundreds of Superior homeowners to run its course. The Town is not a party to that case and has no control over it. Dismissing our own appeal would therefore give up our legal leverage without providing any guarantee that Jefferson County would actually offer meaningful relief. I do not believe that would make sense.

Have we done enough?

I regularly hear that the Town needs to "do something" or "do more" about RMMA. I understand that reaction. But at some point, it is fair to ask what specifically that means.

Over the years, Superior has hired consultants, conducted studies, surveyed residents, pursued operational changes, helped create a regional Roundtable, negotiated with Jefferson County, worked with the FAA, advocated for landing fees and nighttime restrictions, pushed for action on leaded aviation fuel, installed noise monitoring, built a regional coalition through the Northwest Mayors & Commissioners Coalition, and traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet directly with FAA and other federal officials.

If there is another viable legal, regulatory, political, or operational strategy we have overlooked, the Town should absolutely pursue it. Litigation should not prevent us from looking for other solutions at the same time. But "do more" by itself is not a strategy. There are real limits on what Superior can accomplish when another government owns the airport and the federal government controls the airspace. Those limitations are what ultimately brought us to court.

What I hope the next Council does

My time on the Superior Town Council is almost over. After ten years in elected office, somebody else will soon be sitting in my seat, and a new Council will decide how Superior handles RMMA from here.

They should ask hard questions. They should review the legal bills, talk to our attorneys, understand the strengths and weaknesses of the case, and continue looking for settlement opportunities and other solutions. Nobody should continue litigation blindly simply because the previous Council started it.

But I hope they also understand how we got here and what is at stake before deciding the fight is too expensive, too difficult or has gone on too long. For a substantial number of Superior residents, RMMA is one of the most significant quality-of-life issues they face. We spent years pursuing collaborative solutions before going to court. We now have an active lead-emissions claim, a partner in Boulder County sharing future costs equally, support from neighboring communities, and an unresolved legal question that deserves an answer.

I believe we need to see the legal process through.

That does not mean litigation should be our only strategy. We should keep talking to Jefferson County, keep working with our regional partners, keep pressing the FAA, and keep pursuing quieter aircraft, unleaded fuel, operational changes and other realistic mitigation measures.

But we should not abandon the legal effort simply because the fight is hard.

Elected officials are not entrusted with office only to deal with easy problems or inexpensive ones. Sometimes the options are all imperfect, the outcome is uncertain, and the process takes much longer than anyone would like. The responsibility is still to keep pushing for the people you represent.

As I leave office, my advice to the next Town Council is simple: Don't get discouraged. Don't give up. See this through. Too many Superior residents have been dealing with this issue for too long. They deserve a Town government that continues to fight for them.