Federal Aviation Administration returns Airport Layout Plan to Pitkin County for approval
County plans for reading and public comment for Nov. 6
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) returned the Airport Layout Plan to Pitkin County with no material changes.
Pitkin County Commissioner Francie Jacober announced the return of the Airport Layout Plan (ALP) at the Snowmass Squirm Night on Wednesday as she was being questioned about the airport with opposing commissioner candidate Toni Kronberg.
Due to her being a part of Squirm Night, Jacober missed an executive session in which the four other commissioners discussed their next steps for the ALP at the end of their regular meeting.
Commissioner Greg Poschman said the commissioners decided to present the ALP for first reading and public comment tentatively on Nov. 6, the day after Election Day.
Other potential topics of discussion for that meeting include the airport’s fixed-base operator lease and new rates and charges.
“What I told everyone that was on that call is that we need to have full transparency, so everybody knows where we are and what we’re doing,” Poschman said.
If the ALP is signed by the county commissioners following the reading and public comment, it will be sent to the secretary of the FAA. After the secretary signs the new ALP, it will officially be approved for the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.
Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock plans on releasing a letter to the county commissioners on Friday morning to inform them of these next steps.
He also said that some of this depends on what happens with the airport questions on November’s ballot. The schedule for the reading and public comment may change depending on the results.
This follows a letter Peacock received on Oct. 17 from Denver Airports District Office Manager John P. Bauer over ballot question 200, the citizens initiative.
The letter begins by stating that the “Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would like to take the opportunity to express our concern regarding the proposed Pitkin County Ballot Question 200.”
Question 200 seeks to amend the Home Rule Charter to restrict county officials’ decision-making power regarding the expansion or relocation of any runway at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport beyond the dimensions and locations that existed on Jan. 1 without voter approval. It also clearly defines “runway.”
Question 1C, the county’s question, seeks to amend Article II of the county’s governing document, the Home Rule Charter, to reaffirm Pitkin County’s power to approve and carry out the layout plan for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport.
The ALP just returned to the county will not be approved by the election. Both the current ALP and the updated ALP, however, depict a runway shift and a new terminal, Aspen-Pitkin County Airport Director Dan Bartholomew said.
“If you look at it from that direction, not a whole lot changes,” he said.
For the runway and terminal update, he said the approval of the updated ALP is just the first step in a number of steps before any action can be taken and approved by the FAA.
Environmental evaluations on certain projects still need to be completed. After this, design plans need to be approved and FAA funding must be applied for and granted before any construction can begin.
“If things went perfectly from an environmental approval standpoint, the design, everything, potentially, we could be looking at 2026 for the runway,” Bartholomew said. “But again, that’s all dependent on funding being available and other things lining up. Otherwise, you’d be looking at the following year potentially.”
In May 2024, county commissioners voted 4-1 to amend the ALP, shifting the runway 80 feet west instead of moving the taxiway 80 feet east, according to previous reporting from The Aspen Times.
The county worked for years to submit a new ALP to the FAA that incorporates input from the Common Ground Recommendations — the airport goals report from the citizen Airport Vision Committee.
The county held a special meeting to consider amendments to the Common Ground Recommendations ALP — which the FAA considered in January and handed back to the county, the airport’s sponsor, with some edits.
The main contention within the community is that it — like every other draft ALP since 2012 — includes widening the separation between the taxiway and runway centerlines to 400 feet, meeting the full FAA design standards for the airport’s size and allowing planes with a 95- to 118-foot wingspan access to the airport once again.
The amended ALP includes shifting the runway, the potential to extend the west-side taxiway, eliminating a midfield crossing in the “high energy zone” of the runway, and extending access to the departure of the runway, previous reporting states.
Altering the ALP to plan for a runway shift and not a taxiway shift is meant to save the airport time and money, as the runway is in desperate need of total reconstruction. In the meantime, the airport recently released dates for its spring closure for runway maintenance.
Shifting the runway instead of the taxiway is an answer to the FAA mandate that moving the taxiway would prompt the reconstruction and relocation of the Air Traffic Control Tower, likely to the other side of Colorado Highway 82 over 100 feet tall, and paid for from the county’s Airport Enterprise Fund (revenue earned in the airport must only fund airport works and vice versa).
It is the greatest departure from the Common Ground Recommendations, which called for a taxiway shift, but a consultant said the reason to shift the taxiway is now moot and that the runway must be fully reconstructed, no matter its location.
Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.
Aspen student projects thrive in International Baccalaureate program
What were you doing in 11th grade? Unless you were helping Aspen senior citizens learn the ins and outs of technology, or taking it upon yourself to educate your peers about entrepreneurship by organizing discussions with experts, you would not have been going toe-to-toe with the achievements of Aspen High Schoolers.
