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During a work session on Tuesday, Pitkin County commissioners voiced support for more funding and focus toward climate goals for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport. They also revealed an intent to submit their own ballot question on the future of the airport for the Nov. 5 general election.
George Newman, a former county commissioner, and John Bennett, who co-chaired the ASE Vision Committee in 2019-20, sought to make a case to commissioners on Tuesday for greater financial and institutional investment in the Common Ground recommendations for the airport. Those recommendations were approved by Bennett and fellow committee members in March 2020 following a lengthy series of meetings on the community’s desires for the future of the airport known as the “ASE Vision” process.
Of the recommendations’ four primary goals, Newman and Bennett said three goals — reducing polluting emissions, reducing noise levels, and managing enplanements — require effort and investment from the county, especially at the federal level.
“[Those goals] require cooperation from the federal government and possibly the airlines serving Aspen. That means advocating for public policy changes at the federal level, while also negotiating with the airlines,” Bennett said. “This will be a long-term effort, and I want to say I feel great that you guys are taking exactly the right kinds of steps to move in this direction.”
Pitkin County commissioners voted to support the Common Ground recommendations via resolution in 2020, four years ago to the day of Tuesday’s work session.
In March, Commissioners Francie Jacober and Patti Clapper traveled to Washington D.C., to meet with federal officials to explore the possibility of instituting a “carbon tax” on higher-polluting aircraft at the airport and the possibility of using airport-generated funds for climate initiatives off airport property.
The second initiative is getting more traction than the first, said Clapper, who last month attended a National Association of Counties conference, gaining the group’s endorsement of the plan.
Bennett floated the idea of creating incentives on the landside of the terminal for airlines to use more climate-friendly infrastructure — even aircraft — though he stressed it was purely a speculation.
Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury said the county needs to define its goals more clearly.
“I think it would help if we had a strategic plan related to policies that we want to pursue to help clarify the actual what is it that we want to be done,” she said. “What are the avenues that have to get changed? Who are the players involved in that?”
Commissioners directed staff to prepare to set aside funding for this endeavor in the county’s 2025 budget discussions, coming later this year. The county will likely need to pursue local partnerships to convince federal officials of its needs.
Newman likened the county’s approach to climate goals at the airport to the recent Thompson Divide mineral withdrawal, a concerted effort from a number of local and regional stakeholders.
“A federal policy change that might feel daunting today will not feel so daunting tomorrow. The climate emergency is not going away,” Newman said. “Our airport today is polluting and noisy. If we implement all the Common Ground Recommendations, we could clean it up and create what would truly be the greenest airport in America.”
The future of the airport is a divisive topic, but Bennett and Newman — who both serve among leaders of a newly created group called Community Coalition for a 21st Century Airport — said that the climate goals outlined in the Common Ground recommendations will outlast any outcome of November’s election and ballot items regarding a potential widening of the runway.
Still, the county plans to put before voters a ballot question related to the airport. Commissioners directed staff to schedule a special meeting on Aug. 13 for the first public discussion of their own ballot item.
Because the county’s discussions of a potential ballot question have been held in executive sessions, the content and direction of the potential election item are not yet clear.
Our Airport Our Vote, the issues committee aligned with Citizens Against Bigger Planes, successfully completed its own ballot question process one week ago. That ballot question, if passed, would amend the county’s Home Rule Charter to strip the commissioners of the power to change the airport’s runway, forcing a secondary vote on the runway’s widening and relocation — two decisions the commissioners already approved in their own votes earlier this year.
The new coalition, which supports runway widening and relocation, has not yet formed an issues committee, but has said previously that they would support a county-sponsored measure.
“An issues committee that would focus specifically on any measures that are officially placed on the ballot, will be announced imminently,” a coalition representative said in an email statement.
The ballot language likely would undergo first and second reading on Aug. 14 and 28, respectively. The state’s deadline to submit finalized ballot initiative language is in early September.