Fort Collins City Council gives wing to airport plan

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

The Fort Collins City Council has joined its Loveland counterparts in approving a 20-year, master plan update for the Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport that they both own and operate.

The council on July 18 voted 5-2 to adopt the master plan with council members David Roy and Kelly Ohlson opposed. Both expressed concerns about the accuracy and integrity of the document.

The master plan analyzes airport operations and recommends anticipated improvements needed to meet its future needs. Chief among those recommendation are the following:

• Extend the main runway 1,000 feet to the south, allowing aircraft to take off with more fuel when warm summer temperatures reduce lift. It would not be used for landings to the north.
• Construct an air traffic control tower, probably on the southwest quadrant of the airport property.
• Reserve room for a new parallel runway should demand dictate.
• Set aside space for eventual expansion of the passenger terminal and parking lot.
• Improve the crosswind runway.

Southwest Fort Collins residents concerned that airport expansion would attract more large, loud commercial aircraft challenged the plan's assumptions as flawed. They also questioned the wisdom of investing more in a municipal airport increasingly surrounded by residential development, rather than moving toward creation of a regional airport proposed near Ault.

But airport supporters continued to insist it is essential to the area's economic health.