Special East Hampton Board Meeting Convened to Address Airport Noise

Photo: Google Maps

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a special meeting on August 27, at 6:30 at the LTV Studio off Industrial Road in Wainscott. The meeting will be dedicated to discussion of increased traffic and noise complaints at the East Hampton Airport.

On January 1, the East Hampton Airport gets to decide whether or not to continue to accept Federal Aviation Administration funding and abide by FAA rules or forego the funding and limit the hours of airport operation while trying to make up for revenue shortfall. A number of plans are on the table.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said the East Hampton Town Board understands that “a large number of East End residents wish to address this issue and many planned to attend the August 21 regular meeting of the Town Board. Based on the turnout of citizens attending recent meeting on this issue in Southold and Southampton Towns, we would anticipate an overflow crowd on the night of August 21 when the Town Board already has thirteen public hearings scheduled.” Due to the anticipated turnout, Supervisor Cantwell’s office has scheduled the meeting on the 27th at the LTV Studio.

The supervisor’s office urges all concerned citizens to attend the meeting. There will be ample seating. “We welcome comments from East Hampton residents and from our neighbors on the East End concerning the impact of aircraft noise,” said Supervisor Cantwell.

The airport has been a thorn in the side of residents who live under or near the flight paths that helicopters and planes take to cross over land to reach the East Hampton Airport. But, the problem has increased dramatically as the traffic to the airport has increased.

According to an editorial by David Rattray in The East Hampton Star between January 1 and August 4 helicopter traffic had increased 44 percent over the same period in 2013. Helicopters are of primary concern to residents living under their path as they are substantially louder than fixed wing aircraft.

East Hampton Town Board member Kathee Burke-Gonzalez is the liaison with the airport. Her office has prepared several hypothetical solutions to the noise problem.

The FAA wants to shift the flight path to the airport away from the power-lines route which is currently in use, to one that would route traffic over less populous areas.

Kathleen Cunningham of the Quiet Skies Coalition, a group which seeks to eliminate FAA funding and limit the hours aircraft can land at the airport, says that shifting the routes is merely shifting the problem. Presently aircraft fly over the water, either along the Atlantic Ocean, which is the southerly route, or over the Long Island Sound, which is the northerly route. However, the majority of problems arise once the aircraft leave the water and cross over land.

Cunningham said residents of the North Fork are especially angry about noise caused by aircraft. At a meeting August 11, that was reported by the East End Beacon, North Fork residents weren’t shy about expressing their frustration and anger over the aircraft noise problem. Unlike residents of the South Fork, who may derive benefits from the airport traffic, there is no upside to the increase in traffic for residents of the North Fork.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell’s office issued a press release on August 15 advising concerned residents to lobby their local, state and federal representatives. They distributed contact information so that people can write to express their concerns as well as hotline numbers where they can call to report noise complaints.

“As of January 1, the town will get to say what reasonable access hours are,” said Cunningham. “And, the town will be able to enact enforceable access. This airport has become a nuisance, and that’s what the meeting is about. Their hair is on fire. The only way to solve the problem is by setting limited hours of operation. It’s a huge goal, January 1. It’s the end of application grants that limit the rights of proprietorship. We can’t fix anything in the air, that’s the FAA’s jurisdiction. We have to fix it on the ground.”

The LTV Studio is located at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott. The meeting begins promptly at 6:30 on Wednesday, August 27.