The city and county of Denver, along with six other cities, pledged support for the creation of an airport city at Denver International Airport during an Aug. 2 meeting, at which conflicting concerns were raised by Adams County officials.

An issue for many municipalities is whether Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s proposal to develop municipal areas surrounding Denver International Airport conforms with the voter-approved 1988 agreement between Denver and Adams counties.

“We just want to reiterate the fact that we would like Denver to respect the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that we have with the city for the airport,” Adams County Commissioner W.R. “Skip” Fischer said. “Sometimes we get the impression that the IGA is a secondary thing in the overall vision.”

According to agreement documents, the airport’s land was given up by Adams County and annexed by the city and county of Denver to build the existing airport.

But the agreement restricts the development of “accessory uses,” confined to “only those land uses which are necessary for or directly related to the operation of the new airport,” such as parking structures and retail or concession space.

The agreement also limits residential, commercial and industrial development to areas south of 72nd Avenue, and south and east of an open space buffer along Peña Boulevard, requiring Denver to actively limit development north and west of the buffer.

“The mistake that we made as the city of Denver was to assume that every city and county was in the same place that we were,” Hancock said. “Many conversations had occurred so the assumption for me and my team was that we were all on the same page as a region on this.”

Formal discussions to interpret the 24-year-old agreement did not take place during the meeting.

Instead, city administrators pledged their collaborative support for the airport city’s development and efforts to work through legal challenges.

“We look forward to working collaboratively to ensure the economic benefits for the region can be achieved,” officials from Adams County, Aurora, Brighton, Commerce City and Denver said in an Aug. 2 joint statement. “We need to invest the time necessary to make sure this development is done right.”