Airport Curfew Tossed

A federal appeals court ruling on Friday striking down three 2015 East Hampton Town laws designed to reduce noise from aircraft using East Hampton Airport may well galvanize those negatively affected by aircraft noise, who had looked to the laws for relief, to rally behind the idea of closing the airport. 

The town is “deeply disappointed” in the decision, Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, said in a press release Friday afternoon. 

The town board, as the airport’s proprietor, has “always held the belief that it had a public policy responsibility to protect local residents from the loud and disturbing effects of airport noise,” according to the statement.

The court, however, ruled that the town cannot independently enact airport use restrictions, but must follow the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act and seek federal approval. 

“The court’s opinion undermines local control of operations at the town-owned airport property,” Mr. Sendlenski wrote, “and establishes that the federal bureaucracy controls regulations in the area of aviation noise abatement and control.”

The court decision “expanded federal control at the expense of local government, eroding the concept of home rule,” New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. wrote in his own press release, issued on Monday.

“The F.A.A. has shown itself to be interested only in protecting the moneyed special interests of the helicopter industry. There is no reason to believe that will change,” Assemblyman Thiele wrote. 

The judgment raises the question, Mr. Thiele said, of “whether or not the Town of East Hampton should be in the ‘airport business’ at all. The health and safety of its residents must always take precedence over commercial enterprise.”

“Perhaps now more people will clearly see that the only remedy is to close that airport!” Patricia Currie, a founder of Say No to KHTO (East Hampton Airport), said in her own press release. “Enough pandering to aviation operators whose claims about ‘safety’ fail to conceal their real motives: unfettered access 24/7/365, and airport expansion.”

Ms. Currie said the group had anticipated the ruling, and that “noise-affected residents have been manipulated by the town’s poorly conceived approach to securing peace and quiet for the thousands of Long Island families who suffer health-threatening noise impacts. . . .” The court’s decision, she said, “reflects the questionable advice” of Peter Kirsch, the town’s aviation counsel, and “raises the question as to why the legal firm has not been replaced.” 

The ruling will “fuel the cause” of the group, Ms. Currie said. Say No to KHTO’s immediate agenda, according to a press release, is to develop plans for “environmentally responsible and socially sensitive” alternate uses of the airport property.

A coalition of opponents to airport regulation, including the Friends of the East Hampton Airport along with a number of aviation companies, sued in federal court just after the town board enacted three airport use restrictions in 2015.

In late June 2015, Judge Joanna Seybert blocked one — a once-a-week limit on takeoffs and landings of planes that fall into a noisy aircraft category — but allowed two curfews to be enacted. 

A general ban on takeoffs and landings from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and an extended ban from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. for noisy aircraft has been in effect since July 2, 2015. During the 2015 and 2016 summer seasons, according to the town, 99 percent of flights complied with the curfews. 

But the Court of Appeals ruling struck down the curfews, and upheld the lower court decision barring the once-a-week restriction.

The court ruled that the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act requires all airport owners to follow required procedures when seeking to enact local restrictions on airport access, whether or not they accept federal airport grants. 

Several contractual obligations to the F.A.A. related to acceptance by the town of previous grants have expired, and town officials intended to take no further grants.

The town had relied upon a Federal Aviation Administration memo to former U.S. Representative Tim Bishop stating that East Hampton could adopt “reasonable” noise restrictions without going through the “lengthy F.A.A. bureaucratic review and approval process,” outlined under the Airport Noise and Capacity Act.

The Court of Appeals judge decided differently, agreeing with the plaintiffs’ argument that the act’s procedural requirements for local restrictions on airport access apply to all public airport proprietors regardless of their federal funding status. 

“Unfortunately . . . the decision has usurped the town’s local authority, contrary to the assurances of the F.A.A. written statement to Congressman Bishop,” the town wrote in the press release, “therefore making burdensome ANCA review and F.A.A. approval mandatory for any aviation noise regulations adopted by an airport proprietor.” 

The court decision says that Congress enacted the Airport Noise and Capacity Act based on findings that “noise policy must be carried out at the national level” to prevent “uncoordinated and inconsistent restrictions on aviation that could impede the national air transportation system.”

Kathleen Cunningham, who heads the Quiet Skies Coalition, a group that has fought against airport noise, said in a press release that she was “stunned” by the decision. “We’ll have to go back to the drawing board to begin working on real solutions to the environmental challenges this airport causes,” she said.

The National Air Transportation Association applauded the ruling and called on the town to immediately rescind 38 summonses that had been issued to aircraft operators for violations of the curfew this past summer, and to refund fines levied for them. A number of aviation companies that received summonses appeared in town justice court last week, and a plea-bargaining agreement was reached. 

The appeals court “made a sound decision in favor of aviation businesses and our national airport system,” Martin H. Hiller, the president of the association, said in press release. “The imposition of arbitrary airport restrictions that do not comply with F.A.A. procedures would burden the vibrant general aviation community at HTO [East Hampton Airport], potentially reducing future investment and creating inadvertent job loss.” 

“Although today’s court decision places the solution to the aviation noise problem firmly at the feet of Congress and the F.A.A., the town will continue to explore every available option so that the residents of the East End won’t continue to be [afflicted] by an unrelenting din from the skies above,” the town concluded in its press release. 

Data already being collected regarding the aircraft noise issue stemming from helicopters and other planes using the airport could be used in making a case for F.A.A. approval of local airport restrictions, if the town chooses to go that route.

Should the town wish to pursue the case in court, it could ask for a hearing before the entire panel of Second Circuit Court of Appeals judges, or go to the Supreme Court.