Vote YES on #200 for a new airport without bigger planes.
Vote NO on #1C for local choice on expansion.
Commercial service in Aspen WILL NOT be affected if the runway is not expanded
United and SkyWest have announced that they will begin using the Embraer 175 in Aspen this fall. This plane fits under the current 95-foot wingspan limit and DOES NOT require Aspen Airport to expand the runway to comply with commercial service.
A newer, larger runway only benefits bigger private planes.
We can improve the Aspen Airport with many updates laid out by the Airport Layout Plan WITHOUT moving and expanding the runway to allow for larger, louder planes.
What does this
Ballot Measure do?
OAOV is proposing an amendment to the Pitkin County Charter to specify that the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners DOES NOT HAVE SOLE POWER to authorize the expansion or relocation of ANY runway at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport beyond the runway dimensions and locations that existed on January 1, 2024, unless it is referred to and APPROVED BY the voting people of Pitkin County.
Why we care:
1. This Ballot Measure will decide whether or not the people of Pitkin County will be able to vote on major decisions of all nature in the future.
If this measure does not pass, it takes away NOT ONLY the citizens' right to vote on Airport Expansion, but citizens' right to vote on major decisions going forward and puts sole discretion into the hands of the County Commission.
2. This ballot concerns not just the widening of the Airport runway, but GROWTH of the entire Roaring Fork Valley.
This includes overcrowding, increase in traffic, worsening housing shortage, and increased noise and pollution to name a few. The City of Aspen has done ZERO studies on how Airport expansion will affect any of these categories
3. Leveraging FAA funding is a SCARE TACTIC to distract people from the core issue at hand.
In 1995 there were similar threats that we are hearing today, that the airport would close down and lose funding if it didn’t comply with FAA demands. But our representatives went to DC and negotiated the existing Modification of Standards. The FAA has never suspended or withdrawn funding from ASE and has expressed no intention of doing SO.
4. Community decisions should be made for the benefit of the community - not in closed door conversations where personal financial interests may play a factor.
We should be making the decision on other factors other than costs, such as:
✓ Noise
✓ Pollution
✓ Traffic
✓ Quality of Life
✓ Impacts of future growth
VOTE NO ON COUNTY BALLOT MEASURE FOR BIGGER PLANES
The measure by the county is reactionary and an underhanded, last-ditch effort to subvert the will of the voters.
The BOCC proposes to take away a right to vote on airport issues that we have had for 46 years, beginning with the airport curfew amendment to the charter adopted in 1978.
The County ballot measure is a blank check. No limitation on their power. They can change the Airport Layout Plan again and again at will without asking for voter approval and denying a right to vote in the future.
The issue is not about the runway anymore. The real issue at hand is can the BOCC make these decisions without voters? Their measure says they don’t trust the voters. Or do they have power subject to voter approval allowed by a Home Rule Charter?
Pitkin County Commission Misleading Voters on Aspen Airport Question #1C
New legal analysis indicates County interpretation of #1C “offends” the Colorado and United States Constitution; Violates the Home Rule Charter
ASPEN, Colo – A new legal analysis by one of Colorado’s top elections attorneys indicates that the County Commission’s self-serving interpretation of their referred measure, Question #1C, “offends” both the Colorado and United States Constitutions and would violate Pitkin County’s Home Rule Charter.