A district court judge in Taos has upheld the Taos County Commission’s approval of a building permit for the expansion of the regional airport.

Opponents of the expansion appealed the commission’s July decision to allow the expansion to proceed. The bulk of the expansion is the construction of a second runway, meant to improve safety at the small facility northwest of Taos.

Opponents have said the $24-million project will increase pollution and benefit only the wealthy.

In September 2015, a group of opponents appealed the county's approval of the project. The appellants argued that the county mishandled the application by approving it under less stringent requirements meant for “public utility projects” per the county land use regulations. They also argued that two of the county commissioners — Tom Blankenhorn and Jim Fambro — were “biased” because they had both made public statements before the permit hearing that appeared to show support for the expansion.

In cases of permit approvals, the county commission is supposed to act as an objective arbiter, and make its decision based solely on evidence provided at a public hearing.

The Oct. 12 ruling by judge Jeff McElroy rejected both of those arguments.

McElroy wrote that the county’s regulations are “ambiguous,” and the county’s interpretation that the airport is a “public utility project” — and therefore subject to a less stringent approval process — was “reasonable.”

“The court will defer to the county’s interpretation of its own ordinance and regulations,” McElroy wrote.

As for the allegations of bias, the appellants pointed to written statements made by Blankenhorn and Fambro months before the airport permit hearings began. Among the examples presented by the opponents was an op-ed written by Blankenhorn in which he wrote: “The airport expansion is an important long term investment in our community that will improve the accessibility and safety for air travel into and out of Taos.”

The appellants also pointed to a comment Fambro posted to his campaign Facebook page in which he called the airport expansion a “plus from a pubic safety point of view.”

In his ruling, McElroy said the statements did not meet the standard for a bias that would disqualify a county commissioner from ruling on the case. “Chairman Blakenhorn’s statements were made in the context of opposing the Town’s annexation of the airport,” McElroy wrote. “Vice chairman Fambro’s statements were made while campaigning for the commission. Both are general policy statements of the sort that are permissible by those in public positions or seeking office.”

McElroy later wrote that there was no evidence that either commission had “prejudged any facts” relating to the town’s application for a building permit for the expansion.

Counsel for the appellants could not immediately be reached for comment.