Class Action Inverse Condemnation Lawsuit Filed by Residents Adversely Impacted by Colorado's Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — More than 400 homeowners near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) filed a lawsuit against the airport and Jefferson County, alleging the associated noise and lead pollution have hurt their property values.

The lawsuit, filed last week and delivered to the county Wednesday, does not seek a specific dollar amount in damages. It only states that the homeowners deserve "just compensation" for being "substantially deprived of the use and enjoyment of their homes," citing the process of eminent domain in which governments pay property owners impacted by public actions and projects...

Joy Dysart, a realtor and appraiser in Denver, said this has become a growing topic for buyers and sellers as our population grows and aviation traffic increases. She agreed that busier airports can have a negative impact on the values of nearby homes.

This is an inverse condemnation lawsuit seeking just compensation for hundreds of individual Homeowners who have been substantially deprived of the use and enjoyment of their homes and properties (collectively, "Properties") because of Defendant's ongoing airport operations. (Pg. 5)

An inverse condemnation action is a special statutory proceeding that is to be tried as if it were an eminent domain proceeding, which concerns only issues relating to the just compensation owed for governmental use of private property and cannot address collateral issues that change the scope of the proceedings... (Pg. 5)

Through its Airport, the County engages in flight operations through, over, and across the Properties (collectively, "Airport Operations") despite the County lacking avigation easements or any other property right permitting it to do so. (Pg. 5)

It is commonplace for the Airport Operations to include planes making 10-15 loops in a single training flight, and there can be multiple training flights in a pattern at once, resulting in significant invasions of Homeowners' Airspace. Some Homeowners have tracked 20-40 "touch and go" takeoffs and landings by a single plane during a training flight. Recently, one plane did 58 loops during a single training flight. (Pg. 6)

These increased Airport Operations have caused excessive noise, vibrations, fuel pollution, and other airplane-created impacts (collectively, "Airport Impacts"), which directly and substantially interfere with the Homeowners' use and enjoyment of their Properties and that significantly affect the marketability and value of the Properties. (Pg. 6)

The flights also drop lead particulates found in the aviation fuel used by small planes directly onto the Properties, causing an ongoing physical occupation of the Properties, raising serious health concerns, and again directly and substantially interfering with the Homeowners' use and enjoyment of their Properties and significantly affecting the marketability and value of the Properties. (Pg. 6)

The County has continued its Airport Operations with full knowledge that it lacks property rights to invade the Homeowners' Airspace, homes, and land; and with full knowledge of the impacts such operations have on the Properties. (Pg. 7)

Because the County is a governmental entity with eminent domain power and is operating the Airport for a purported public purpose, the Airport Operations and Airport Impacts constitute the taking and damaging of Homeowners' constitutionally protected property rights which requires the payment of just compensation under the Colorado Constitution. (Pg. 7)

The Airport uses federal monies to help fund some of its operations, development, and infrastructure, including multiple federal grants from the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA"). (Pg. 24)

Because the Airport has this federal financial assistance, the Homeowners will be statutorily entitled to the reimbursement of their "reasonable costs, disbursements, and expenses, including reasonable attorney, appraisal, and engineering fees actually incurred" if the County is found liable for inverse condemnation through either a court order or a settlement. (Pg. 24)

According to an April 2023 letter from The Town of Superior Board of Trustees, proceedings "[r]ecently, nine members of the Superior community have had their homes tested for lead, and all 18 samples, two per household, have come back positive." (Pg. 28)

Many Homeowners have avoided spending time outdoors because of concerns about lead exposure. (Pg. 28)

Where a property has a risk of lead contamination, home values plummet. For example, in Flint, Michigan, according to a paper published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, property values dropped by 20% or greater and did not recover even after the state spent over $400 million remediating the crisis. (Pg. 28)

In addition to the noise and vibrations caused by flights taken by commercial, private, military, and medical aircrafts, the flight schools put pilots on repetitive "touch-and-go" routes where airplanes engage in a looping takeoff and landing flight training, which can include multiple planes flying in the same racetrack pattern over the Properties. (Pg. 29)

Airport Operations cause Airport Impacts, including deafening, disturbing, and frightening noise and vibrations on the Properties day and night. (Pg. 29)

Require the County to pay just compensation to each Homeowner pursuant to the provisions of Colo. Const. art. II, § 15, C.R.S. § 24-56-116, and other applicable laws relating to the taking or damaging of property for public use. (Pg. 36)

Require the County to pay interest as provided by law pursuant to the provisions of Article I, Title 38 of C.R.S and other applicabl law. (Pg. 36)

Require the County to pay all Homeowners' attorney fees and litigation costs incurred by the Homeowners in pursuing this proceeding to establish a taking and damaging of their Properties and to determine the just compensation they are owed as are appropriate under law including, but not limited to, all of Homeowners' court costs, deposition costs, witness fees, expert witness fees, consultant fees, appraisal costs, attorney fees, and any other litigation expenses which are otherwise appropriate for the County to pay Homeowners in eminent domain proceedings pursuant to C.R.S. § 24-56-116, and other applicable law (Pg. 36).