Airport Suit Deemed Moot

A lawsuit that challenged the adoption of a master plan for East Hampton Airport in 2010 has been dismissed by a federal appeals court. Brought by the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, the suit centered on aircraft noise, which was the impetus for the four proposed airport use restrictions that drew a crowd to a town board hearing at LTV Studios in Wainscott last Thursday. The hearing is reported on separately.

The master plan, which is still in force, was adopted by the East Hampton Town Board during the administration of Supervisor Bill Wilkinson. It relied on a generic environmental impact statement, which found there was “no significant noise outside of the airport itself.” The lawsuit disputed that finding, claiming that the noise averaging system used to reach that conclusion was flawed and that the environmental assessment fell short of the requirements of town law and the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

With the court case pending, the current town administration undertook aircraft noise studies and the analysis needed to develop the proposed restrictions, which would limit takeoffs and landings by helicopters and other aircraft designated as “noisy” and impose a nighttime curfew.

Consequently, “. . . the fact is that the court’s decision has already been overtaken by events and is, as a practical matter, irrelevant,” Pat Trunzo III, the chairman of the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, said in a press release. In any case, he noted, the town is no longer fully bound by F.A.A. airport regulations and its noise threshold.

In settlement of a prior lawsuit the committee had brought against the F.A.A., the agency agreed that after 2014 it would no longer enforce several “grant assurances,” or agreements binding East Hampton to particular airport mandates enacted when the town took federal grants.

“Having recovered control over its own airport due to the efforts of the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, the Town of East Hampton is now poised to adopt meaningful airport access restrictions to control noise and for the first time in decades deliver substantial relief to the noise afflicted across the East End,” Mr. Trunzo wrote.