A group of Parkland County residents wants the federal government to shut down a local airport and stop the pilot training offered there.

They're launching a petition to clip the wings of Parkland Airport, claiming its owner went over their heads and built the site without proper consultation.

But a spokesperson for the company that owns the airport said it is working hard to address neighbours' concerns, so the airport can continue operating.

"I am open for dialogue in all directions with this to reduce the number of complaints, the sources of the complaints, and make sure the airport can continue its business development and minimize the impact," said Robert Gilgen, president of Parkland Airport Development Corp.

Construction on the private aerodrome started in 2013 after Parkland Airport Development Corp. bought a plot of land about 30 kilometres southwest of Edmonton. The airport opened in November 2013, the same month Edmonton's City Centre Airport closed.

Parkland Airport's two largest users are flight schools — the Edmonton Flying Club and Synergy Aviation. The flying club provides training on fixed-wing aircraft while Synergy offers training on helicopters.

June O'Donnell lives on a farm across the road and said she remembers being confused about why anyone would want to build an airport there.

Parkland Airport Development Corp. started construction on a private aerodrome where planes can take off and land in 2013. (CBC) "I didn't really believe them," she said. "I thought, if they're going to use one or two planes maybe we can live with that. But it's been so noisy."

Three years later, airplane propellers chop up the rural silence. The smell of manure and grass is undercut with aviation fuel.

"It's disturbing a lot of the people that have come into the area and wanted to live here because it was a peaceful area," said Leonard O'Donnell, June's husband.

He inherited the century-old homestead that sits opposite the airport from his father. He spent decades harvesting grain and raising cattle across from an empty field.

The 73-year-old's children and grandchildren both played in grass where now there is tarmac.

June O'Donnell says she never imagined someone would build an airport next to her farm in Parkland County. (Zoe Todd/CBC) "We understand that development is something that's going to happen," he said. "But when they're flying over your head and they fly over at night, you don't sleep, because you're used to the quiet."

Airplanes and helicopters roar over his home at all hours, O'Donnell said. He has filed noise complaints, he added, but to no effect.

"It's ignorant. It's not like a truck going down your road — some of these helicopters are really vibrating your house."

Leonard O'Donnell says he plans to sign a petition imploring the federal government to shut down the Parkland Airport. (CBC) The O'Donnells say they want to be among the first to write their names on a petition.

​Harriet Switzer drafted the petition and will start accepting signatures on Monday.

She moved her family onto an acreage near the current airport more than two decades ago. Switzer said she wanted to raise her children in the countryside.

"This isn't what I wanted," she said. "I was really proud when I moved here, and I really liked my little subdivision. There's just a few of us there."

Switzer's children grew up with the O'Donnells' grandchildren. She still visits their farm to help with the couple's vegetable patch.

"No one even thought about what this does just to these two people. Never mind us. What about these retired people who have worked all their life in this soil?"

"We're not bad people," Switzer said. "If we were bad people we would be picketing, or whatever, but we will get a petition. And we're very, very determined."

Gilgen said he hasn't yet seen the petition. But he said the airport is receiving and tracking complaints about noise and low flights and is working to address neighbours' concerns.

He said a memorandum of understanding is in the works. It will be a legal document that lays out how the airport plans to work with Transport Canada, Parkland County and neighbours, including "dealing with noise and low-flight complaints."

Gilgen also said the flight schools and other airport users have been asked to reduce the number of repeated flights over neighbouring properties.

"These are informal procedures — they have not been officially published yet in the aeronautical publications — but we are trying that out. And both flight schools have agreed to try to modify the flight paths, especially for the repeated circuit flights, to reduce the number of overflights over the same properties and residences."

@ZoeHTodd