News Articles and Editorials
Quiet Skies Editorials and News Articles in Boulder County, CO
Mar 26, 2017: Kimberly Gibbs: Why Quiet Skies won’t give up this fight
Mar 13, 2017: Editorial: Respect needed in Longmont skydiving noise battle
Mar 10, 2017: Citizens For Quiet Skies files for Colorado Supreme Court review in Longmont noise case
Dec 22, 2016: Colorado Court of Appeals sides with Mile-Hi Skydiving
Jun 17, 2016: Richard Auletta: 5 million for quiet trains, $0 for quiet skies
Apr 17, 2016: Longmont Airport manager investigates missing Mile-Hi drop zone fees
Feb 23, 2016: Longmont moves forward with new Mile-Hi Skydiving lease
Jan 23, 2016: Mile-Hi lease to go before Longmont council
Feb 11, 2016: Longmont airport board oks Mile-Hi Skydiving lease
Aug 15, 2015: Longmont Mile-Hi tangle over 7-year-old lease for airport land
Aug 15, 2015: Kelly Mahoney: Longmont missing out on Mile-Hi Skydiving lease payments
Aug 9, 2015: Stephen Henninger: Keep going, Quiet Skies
Aug. 1, 2015: Kimberly Gibbs: Times has come for sensible noise regulations
Jul 29, 2015: Judge: airplane noise plaintiffs owe Mile-Hi $48K
May 21, 2015: Judge rules in favor of Mile-Hi Skydiving in Longmont noise trial
Jun 16, 2015: Editorial: Kimberly Gibbs: Curious change in Mile-Hi Skydiving plane routes on day of judge’s visit
May 06, 2015: Judge hears final arguments in Mile-Hi lawsuit; verdict due May 22
May 05, 2015: Judge denies Quiet Skies request for site visit rebuttal
May 02, 2015: With ears to the sky judge visits 2 homes in Longmont airplane-noise lawsuit
Apr 17, 2015: Noise expert says Mile-Hi doesn’t have loudest planes
Apr 15, 2015: Ray Bovet: Fighting for quiet skies
Apr 11, 2015: Suit over noise level in Longmont, Boulder County skies goes to trial
Apr 13, 2015: Trial opens in lawsuit against Longmont’s Mile-Hi Skydiving over noise complaints
Dec. 2, 2014: Kimberly Gibbs: Firms using airport should pay a fee
Aug 27, 2014: Gary Rubin: A call for more balance at Vance Brand
Aug 14, 2014: Justin Neway: 85 square miles of noise nuisance
Jul 24, 2014: Justin Neway: The risks and costs of complaining
Jul 4, 2014: Justin Neway: Sounds like a weekend war zone
Jan 30, 2014: Boulder County Commissioners deny skydiving landing zone application
Boulder County commissioners deny skydiving landing zone application
Boulder County commissioners on Thursday denied a skydiving company’s application to continue using a 5.6-acre parcel on a Gunbarrel-area farm as a landing zone for parachutists.
Thursday’s unanimous decision by Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner and Elise Jones means that the Boulder Municipal Airport-based Independent Skydive Co. will have to cease using the landing zone about a quarter mile south of the intersection of North 79th Street and Mineral Road. The site is part of a larger 36-acre area on Charles-Rodgers property at 5980 N. 79th.
Independent Skydive Co. owner Jeremy Divan, who’s been using the property as a landing zone since September 2011, said after the meeting that it’s his understanding that he’ll have to stop using it immediately.
Divan predicted it may take six or more months to find another suitable landing zone for his businesses’ skydiving clients and customers, and to try to get Boulder County’s permission for converting that site to an “outdoor recreation use,” if it’s in an unincorporated area in this county.
County commissioners emphasized that their decision wasn’t based on complaints and concerns brought by skydiving operations critics — including critics of Mile-Hi Skydiving, based at Longmont’s Vance Brand Municipal Airport, as well as Divan’s Independent Skydive — about the noise and flight patterns of the planes carrying the parachutists. Those are issues regulated by agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the airports themselves, and not by the county, commissioners insisted.
Said Gardner: “We really don’t have any jurisdiction over the air space.”
Instead, commissioners endorsed its Land Use Department’s recommendation: that the county deny Independent Skydive’s application because neither the 5.6 acre landing site nor the larger 36-acre area in which it’s located are big enough to prevent parachutists from landing on adjacent and nearby properties.
Land Use staffer Steven Williams wrote in a memo to the commissioners that the department couldn’t conclude “that the proposed property can sufficiently accommodate the proposed use and may rely on the use of adjacent properties to receive errant skydivers or to retrieve associated equipment.” The memo said the county staff doesn’t believe “it is reasonable to expect adjacent property owners to … bear this direct of an impact” when landings occur off-site.
The 15 people who testified at the Board of County Commissioners’ Thursday hearing on Independent Skydive’s application included supporters as well as critics of the company’s proposal to continue using the farmland for landings.
Marc Horan, who said he works at Boulder Municipal Airport, said the plane Divan uses to carry skydivers is one of only 167 aircraft based at the airport, and “eliminating his operation is not going to eliminate the noise” of planes arriving or departing from that facility.
Horan also asked why the county would want “to eliminate the fun for thousands of people” who enjoy skydiving or want to try it.
But Longmont resident Wayne Wolfe described what he said is the continuous noise from Mile-Hi’s skydiving aircraft — planes he said sometimes pass over his neighborhood every 15 minutes — a situation Wolfe said “shouldn’t be allowed in the quality of life in Boulder County.”
Commissioner Jones encouraged Divan to check out other possible land-zone locations that wouldn’t raise the land-use concerns that the North 79th Street area did, “and see if you can get to ‘yes’ on another site.”
Jan 09, 2013: Kimberly Gibbs: Times Call story was Mile-Hi propaganda
Kimberly Gibbs: Story was Mile-Hi Propaganda
Dec 31, 2012: Mile-Hi Skydiving pilot loves seeing his clients ‘really having fun’
Ingrid Moore: Skydiving plane noise begins summer season
Susan S. Guegan: Our quality of life is under attack with noise pollution
Kimberly Gibbs: Skydiving plane noise impacts community