“Who said Longmont doesn’t have late-night activities?” Councilmember Matthew Popkin said near the end of another marathon Longmont City Council meeting that didn’t close until 1:24 a.m.
Last night (this morning?), city council voted to initiate the processes to begin raising fees at Vance Brand Municipal Airport and strengthen noise reduction procedures after receiving two long-awaited reports.
The Noise Program Assessment
The first report assessed Longmont’s Voluntary Noise Abatement Procedures and provided recommendations for how they can be improved. The study was conducted by airport analytics company, Airport Monitoring Systems. Spokesperson Jason Schwartz provided the presentation and hailed the extensiveness of Longmont’s VNAP, saying it’s one of the most comprehensive he’s ever seen. Unfortunately, comprehensive doesn’t always equal effective. That was a sentiment echoed by most of city council Tuesday night.
Some of the report’s highlights:
Flight operations grew 8% in 2025 from the year prior.
12% of flights occurred outside of Longmont’s preferred hours, 8 pm - 8 am.
Schwartz says his team reached out to pilots who frequent VBMA and found they showed little resistance to Longmont’s rules.
Recommendations include bolstering flight tracking so data like pilot conformance, altitude assessments, and intrusion into noise-sensitive areas can be recorded. However, compiling this data would cost big money. Per Longmont City Manager Harold Dominguez, the city’s budget is already extremely tight, adding “We’re going to have to have tough conversations.”
Schwartz says the greatest opportunity lies not with more rules but more visibility. Incorporating methods to ensure pilots’ awareness of Longmont’s procedures is paramount.
City council voted unanimously to direct city staff to begin implementing new measures for noise abatement.
Rates and Charges Study:
The second presentation analyzed VBMA’s financial situation as the airport is facing a significant budget shortfall over the next five years. Paul Anslow, a spokesperson for Bolton & Menk — which conducted the study — strenuously recommended the development of multiple new revenue streams to increase the airport’s revenue by 3-5%. Recommendations included:
Increasing ground lease rates and fuel flowage fees.
Consider implementing landing fees. Anslow said these are “phenomenal revenue generators” but controversial and could draw lawsuits.
More unorthodox revenue-generating ideas like offering paid snow plowing and grass cutting services to tenants and hosting more events like fly-ins, concerts, and pancake breakfasts (The latter is our favorite).
The motion to begin the process to raise fees narrowly passed 4-3, with Councilmembers Diane Crist, Matthew Popkin, and Alex Kalkhofer in opposition. Those in dissent wanted to hold off on concrete action after city staff revealed to city council shortly after midnight that there was a miscalculation in VBMA’s budget.
Zooming out:
For what it’s worth, Anslow testified that VBMA’s financial situation isn’t rare — He says less than 20% of airports are self-sufficient.
In other city council news…
Ordinances to add to the November ballot questions on ranked choice voting and additional protections for open spaces passed on first reading.