Airport Appeal Considered

An East Hampton Town law limiting use of the East Hampton Airport by aircraft defined by the Federal Aviation Administration as noisy was the subject of arguments before a panel of three judges at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan on Monday.

The law restricting noisy aircraft to one takeoff and landing a week at East Hampton during the summer season was one of three air regulations enacted by the town board last spring to “stop excessive airport noise and its negative effects on the peace and tranquillity of the community,” as Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who represents the board on airport matters, pointed out Tuesday.

After an aviation group called Friends of East Hampton Airport sued, the once-a-week limit was barred by the court, while two overnight curfews — a general ban on takeoffs and landings from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and an extended curfew, from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. for noisy aircraft — were allowed to stand. They took effect last July.

The town appealed the decision by Judge Joanna Seybert of U.S. Eastern District Court on the one-trip-a-week law, and Friends of East Hampton Airport also appealed, seeking injunctions against the adopted curfews.

Attorneys for each side were given 12 minutes each to make their case in front of the judges on Monday. After Kathleen Sullivan of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, an airport counsel hired by the town, and Liza Zornberg of Lankler, Siffert & Wohl, the attorney for Friends of East Hampton Airport, made their statements, oral arguments went on for more than an hour, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

Judge Dennis Jacobs, presiding judge, Judge Guido Calabresi, and Judge Reena Raggi asked “dozens of questions,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, touching on the legal underpinnings of the case, such as the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act and a helicopter case against the City of New York, which addressed the rights of airport owners, as well as the law’s compliance with tests of “reasonableness” or with a “proprietor’s exception” regarding an airport owner’s ability to enact regulations. A decision by the court is expected by the end of the year.

Town officials have said the three use restrictions were intended to work together. “We believe all three laws are lawful and necessary to protect the quality of life on the East End,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in a press release. “These three laws are the result of careful, thoughtful, and transparent balancing by the town board. We are hopeful that the Court of Appeals will recognize that all three laws are essential to address the problem of excessive aircraft noise.”