New Denver Airport Running Slow : Transportation: Plans have been scaled down. Many residents are trying to halt the costly project.

It was envisioned as a colossal aerodrome on the prairie--the nation’s second-busiest airport, the largest public works project in Colorado history, an extraordinary intermingling of runways and buffalo.

But plans for the new Denver International Airport have been scaled back. And nearly 18 months after the first shovelful of earth was turned--and despite the sale of $1.4 billion in bonds--there are those who still hope to prevent the airport from being completed.

“All of the developments indicate that the economic disaster is getting closer and closer,” said Richard Young, leader of a group that has opposed the project. “Every projection that the city has made has turned out to be wrong, every assumption they’ve made has turned out to be wrong.

“It makes no sense to continue to try and build something when there’s no way we can pay for it.”

Opponents have mounted a petition drive for yet another election--the third in the airport’s troubled history--asking voters whether construction on the project should continue, despite its $2.1- to $3-billion price tag. But Mayor Federico Pena, a supporter, is adamant.

“There always has been a group of people opposing this airport and they will never go away,” he said. “They continue to mislead the public. These are just the last remaining issues to be tied down to complete the project.”

These “last remaining issues” are a whole host of problems that have afflicted a project that is scheduled to be completed late in 1993, 20 years after it was first proposed.

Since the first of the year:

* A state probe has been launched into land acquisitions that link the airport to the failed Silverado Banking, Savings & Loan.

* The airport has been reduced in size to a version smaller than Stapleton International Airport, which it is to replace. An airport that is large enough to have 12 runways will now have four runways and a commuter strip.

* The Federal Aviation Administration has reduced its projections of how many passengers will use the airport, from 54.8 million to 35.3 million.

The smaller airport will not be second only to Chicago’s O’Hare, as had been planned, but it will be the first major airport built since Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport opened in 1974.

It still will be located on 50 square miles of prairie 17 miles northeast of downtown Denver; eventually, it will offer opportunities to see buffalo, antelope and deer grazing along Airport Boulevard.

But the much-ballyhooed landscaping and waterfalls inside the main terminal may be scaled down. And it is not clear whether the smaller airport will produce 20,000 jobs for the battered local economy.

Though smaller than Stapleton--it will have 84 gates, compared to Stapleton’s 108--the new airport will replace it.

Before the downscaling, federal officials said the new airport would reduce delays across the country by 4% to 5% by 1995. Stapleton’s design often forces the airport to operate with just one runway in bad weather; a 1988 poll of pilots ranked Stapleton as the fifth-least-safe airport in the country.

But United Airlines, the largest air carrier at Stapleton, has yet to sign an agreement to operate out of the new airport, though recent reports indicate that the two sides are nearing agreement. Obviously, United will use the new airport, but much rides on whether it makes Denver International a hub.

In December, Continental Airlines, the only carrier that has signed on as a tenant, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

There are other problems. In March, Standard & Poor’s downgraded airport revenue bonds to “BBB-minus,” one step above non-investment grade. Nonetheless, $500 million in bonds were sold within hours this month, and Pena said, “the message is the project is a done deal.”

And state Atty. Gen. Gale Norton has launched an investigation into airport land transactions involving both Silverado and MDC Holdings Inc., a major home builder in the state with links to Silverado.

Special prosecutor Bob Gallagher, who examined campaign money laundering allegations against MDC, said he came across anomalies in airport land purchases that raised “red flags.”

But Pena says 85% of the sale prices were decided by the courts and approved by the FAA. He also noted the budget for land sales was $210 million and “we’re right on budget.”

Council members decided March 18 to push ahead with construction of the project after reviewing studies that indicated it would cost at least $500 million to delay or halt construction.

There may be other political obstacles ahead. Pena, whose administration made the project happen, has decided not to seek a third term as mayor; there will be a new administration come July.

Mayoral candidate Don Bain has asked whether it would be feasible to delay construction of the facility or even mothball it.

A poll conducted in March found that 55% of Denver residents surveyed favored continuing construction and 44% opposed it--down from a May, 1989 poll, when 63% were in favor and 37% opposed.

The pollster, Floyd Ciruli, said many respondents were confused about the airport, concerned that the project may become a tax liability, he said.

Pena maintains that the project will not need tax dollars to be completed. The money to repay the bonds will be generated by airport operations, he said.

“It’s a very complicated and difficult project, but it’s getting done,” Pena said. “These issues we are dealing with now are not as difficult as the ones we dealt with previously. These are just the last remaining issues to resolve to open up by 1993.”