The Boulder County District Court has dismissed Mile-Hi Skydiving’s lawsuit against the City of Longmont finding that the state court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. 

Mile-Hi’s state lawsuit and injunction essentially asked the state court to prevent the City from enforcing any City ordinances against Mile-Hi, or to require Mile-Hi to pay any fees for its use of the public airport, until such decision is issued.  

The court dismissed the lawsuit because Mile-Hi failed to exhaust its administrative remedies by following through with the Part 16 claims it has already filed with the Federal Aviation Administration. In other words, Mile-Hi failed go through the FAA process first.

A Part 16 Complaint is an administrative proceeding before the FAA. The complaint alleges violations of two federal grant assurances, grant assurances numbers 22 and 23. When airports receive federal grant funds for airport improvements, their owners or sponsors must accept certain obligations and conditions imposed by the FAA. These obligations may be incurred by contract (Grant Assurances) or by restrictive covenants in property deeds. Anyone concerned about an airport’s compliance with these obligations may file informal or formal complaints with FAA. The latter is the action the Mile Hi has taken: filing a Part 16 complaint with the FAA. 

See court order.