City deciding the future of Boulder Municipal Airport

The City of Boulder held its second airport open house on July 18 at the Via Mobility offices on 63rd Street as part of the process to decide the future of the Boulder Municipal Airport. The process has been named the "Airport Community Conversation."

In addition to two open house events, there is a community working group which has met four times and will meet one more time before results are presented to the Boulder City Council. City staff and the working group have collaboratively developed four scenarios describing the future of the airport.

Scenario 1 is for minimal change to the current airport. It adds enhanced maintenance to the existing facilities.

Scenario 2 adds some improvements to the airport, including upgrading existing aircraft hangars, adding new hangars, enhancing the public viewing area and enhancing the aviation facilities. The latter was previously described as an upgrade to the glider airstrip and facilities, but the specific enhancement was dropped from the presentation during the second open house.

Scenario 3 includes the upgraded hangars and possible enhancement for gliders, but focuses on services to the neighborhood around the airport and provides some housing. The housing would be in the form of new hangars that could be lived and worked in. This scenario adds a restaurant or cafe. It would also create a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning center for local youth. A community center would also be built.

Scenario 4 decommissions the airport and replaces it with the development of a new neighborhood. The only remaining aviation facility would be a helicopter landing pad for use by the emergency services that are located at the airport.

Community input in the process concludes today, August 2. Input can be provided before midnight at this website: https://www.beheardboulder.org/airport-community-conversation.

City staff and the working group will incorporate the input into their decision-making and presentation to the Boulder City Council.

The remainder of the schedule for the process includes:

• Bilingual community meetings on Aug. 22 and 29

• Progress update to the Boulder City Council on Aug. 24

• The final working group meeting in September

• Presentation to the Boulder City Council in January, 2024