Fairfield residents press council over airpark noise and safety; council removes airpark language from subdivision code

Residents and business representatives told the Fairfield Town Council on Dec. 18 that aircraft using the nearby airpark have increased in frequency and size, and called for action to protect safety, privacy and long-term operations.

“It's getting beyond ridiculous,” said Damon during the public-comment period, describing numerous touch-and-go operations overnight and telling the council, “they're not operating within the zone of limits.” Damon later reported “10,000 operations a year” and repeated instances of touch-and-go flights over residential areas. Other residents said they are circulating a petition and worry about privacy and crash risk in yards and along the interstate.

Representatives from Intermountain Regional Landfill and Northpointe Solid Waste also urged the council to consider how airport overlay decisions could hinder their ability to operate and expand. An Intermountain Regional Landfill representative said the proposed layout and publicization of the airpark did not match the facilities' expectations and could “pose significant risk to our long term value of our facility.” Neil Schwendeman, representing Northpointe Solid Waste, told the council his company had coordinated operating hours and accommodations with the town in the past and expects similar consideration for other businesses.

The council addressed those concerns in a later agenda item on a proposed amendment to the town's subdivision ordinance. A planning commission representative reviewed the ordinance work and said the commission would remove the airpark-specific language “for now, until that's settled,” so the code would not preempt future, site-specific review of the airpark or related plats. Council members discussed phasing timelines and agreed that the ordinance should not bind the town to a town-owned airpark provision while ownership and actual operations remain unsettled.

Councilmembers said removing the airpark language is intended to preserve flexibility when preliminary plats and subdivision steps come before the planning commission and council. The planning commission and council also asked staff to keep residents and affected businesses informed as plats or conditional approvals proceed.

The meeting record shows the council adopted the subdivision ordinance amendment with the edits discussed at the meeting. The council did not take immediate regulatory enforcement actions against airpark operators during the meeting; instead, members emphasized future case-level review and follow-up with planning staff and legal counsel.

What happens next: residents said they will continue to document operations (videos and petitions); planning staff and the commission will process future plats and any conditional approvals under the revised ordinance language. The council asked staff to monitor and report back if operational patterns change or if private agreements affecting the airpark are filed.