New Airport on Denver Ballot; Seattle Weighs Height Limits

Voters in the mile-high city decided in a referendum Tuesday whether to build the city’s proposed new airport, a $2.3-billion project supporters claim will give Colorado an economic boost and opponents contend is not needed.

The $1-million, months-long public relations campaign leading up to the referendum was the most expensive on an issue in the city’s history.

The airport, to be built 28 miles northeast of downtown Denver on 53 square miles of land annexed from Adams County, would be called Denver International.

Supporters, who include all members of the state’s congressional delegation, Gov. Roy Romer and Mayor Federico Pena, contend the airport will make Denver a major transportation hub and guarantee the state’s economic viability for years to come.

J. D. MacFarlane, a former Colorado attorney general and a leading opponent of the new airport, contends it is not needed and claims the city will recover from its slump without the project.

In Seattle, meanwhile, voters were deciding whether to preserve their mountain view and put a height limit on one of the tallest downtown skylines in the West.

About 25% of Seattle’s 291,903 voters were expected to vote on their referendum, prompted by complaints about the “Manhattanization” of the city.

The so-called CAP referendum, for Citizens Alternative Plan, would limit new buildings to 450 feet, about 38 stories, and restrict density downtown for 10 years while a long-range plan for urban Seattle is put in place.

The city of 500,000, situated across Puget Sound from the Olympic Mountains, already has more than 10 buildings higher than 450 feet.

In other voting Tuesday, Pittsburgh residents were to decide whether to nominate a 71-year-old “Jewish grandmother” for a full term as mayor in a five-way Democratic primary that will give the winner almost certain victory in November.

Mayor Sophie Masloff, 71, was City Council president last year when she was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death of Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri.