Town Challenges Airport Injunction

East Hampton Town has appealed a federal court injunction barring implementation of a law that would have restricted the noisiest aircraft using East Hampton Airport to one round trip per week.

That law was adopted along with two others implementing an overnight curfew on aircraft, which took effect on July 2. Opponents of airport use restrictions sued following the adoption of the laws in April, and won the injunction against the third law.

According to a town press release, “the three use restrictions were intended to work together to provide noise relief,” and the one-trip-per-week restriction “is an integral part” of the town’s plan to address the aircraft noise issues that have prompted thousands of complaints from across the East End.

“We believe all three laws are lawful and necessary to protect the quality of life on the East End,” said Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell in the release. “The one trip per week restriction was designed to limit the noisiest aircraft during the summer season, when residents and visitors naturally have a heightened expectation that they can enjoy the outdoor environment.”

The town has retained Kathleen M. Sullivan, described as “one of the nation’s pre-eminent appellate attorneys,” to assist its airport legal firm, Kaplan Kirsch Rockwell, in the appeal.

The Quiet Skies Coalition, an East Hampton group advocating for the “noise-affected,” said this week that “the compressed time frame into which the curfews force the remaining aircraft traffic has unintended impacts on residents all over the East End.” Residents under typical flight paths have complained about more traffic during the non-curfew hours.

The coalition expressed concern over the Federal Aviation Administration’s position in regard to a 2005 lawsuit settlement, which could potentially affect East Hampton Town’s ability to impose noise-related airport access limits.

The F.A.A. was sued by the East Hampton-based Committee to Stop Airport Expansion over an improper grant to the town for airport improvements. Under the settlement, the agency agreed that as of 2014 it would no longer enforce several grant assurances, contractual obligations between the agency and an airport owner that accepts federal monies. Accepting grant assurances can restrict local control over an airport.

The expiration of those obligations helped pave the way for the airport regulations. However, in an apparent turnaround, the F.A.A. supported a recent request that the three laws be temporarily stayed. The aviation coalition that sued over the new rules, a group called Friends of the East Hampton Airport, had called for the stay.

“The F.A.A.’s response to the current challenge of the settlement has been hesitant and suggests that the government is reluctant to defend the agreement,” said the Quiet Skies Coalition in its release this week.

The group noted that Congressman Lee Zeldin had successfully amended an F.A.A. appropriations bill to include language ensuring that the agency stands by the 2005 settlement. The bill has passed the House of Representatives. According to the Quiet Skies release, support for its passage in the Senate is needed, but Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has not indicated that he will back it.

The bill has not yet been offered to the Senate, a spokeswoman at Senator Schumer’s office said yesterday. The senator did, however, write in June to Michael P. Huerta, the F.A.A. administrator, asking that the agency stand by a memo to former Congressman Tim Bishop indicating that it would not interfere with East Hampton’s airport regulations.

“People have a right to expect that contracts made in federal court by the government of the United States are legitimate agreements anchored in the law of the land, which will be honored by that body,” said Kathleen Cunningham, the Quiet Skies Coalition chairwoman. “The idea that 10 years out, the F.A.A. can somehow rewrite this deal because in hindsight it sees it as a hindrance stretches the boundaries of reasonable redress. Doesn’t a statute of limitations apply here? Or does the F.A.A. have an infinite period of time to renege on decade-old agreements?”

Also this week on the airport front, a new grassroots group was formed “to combat the ever-growing problem of helicopter and aircraft noise from East Hampton Airport.” Called East End Quiet Coalition, it counts members from both the North and South Forks.

The group’s founders said in a release that they are “unhappy with more than 10 years of failure from East Hampton Airport, the East Hampton Town Board, the Southampton Town Board, federal government, county and state elected officials and the Federal Aviation Administration, to solve this noise and pollution problem.”

A loophole in an F.A.A.-mandated helicopter route along Long Island’s North Shore, the group says — a route advocated by Senator Schumer in response to noise complaints — allows helicopters traveling between New York City and East Hampton to transition across the North Fork, Shelter Island, and parts of Southampton Town before landing. The new coalition has pledged to take legal action, to educate the public and press those who commute on helicopters and small planes to use alternative methods of commuting, and to convince “politicians and the F.A.A. that public outcry trumps big money and special interests of the few.” East End Quiet Coalition plans to coordinate with other noise-abatement groups.