Rep. Lee Zeldin, vice-chairman of the House subcommittee on aviation, this week called on the Federal Aviation Administration to enforce minimum altitude rules and to require “rotating” points of entry over land when traversing over Riverhead and the North Fork on their way to the East Hampton airport.
He asked the agency to take immediate steps to assure that north shore residents are not negatively impacted during the upcoming summer season.
In his March 2 letter to FAA administrator Michael Huerta (below), Zeldin asked that the FAA address widespread violation of the 2,500-foot minimum altitude requirement before Memorial Day weekend.
Zeldin asked the FAA to “stand by” the assurances given to his predecessor Tim Bishop in 2012 that East Hampton would not be subject to the Airport Noise and Capacity Act after December 31, 2014and could adopt restrictions on the use of the airport without FAA approval.
“The citizens of the East Hampton community, through their democratically elected town board, have chosen to implement regulations that maintain and protect their quality of life,” Zeldin wrote. The town has elected to forego any new airport improvement funds or any other FAA-administered financial assistance programs in order to undertake the local restrictions, he noted.
“Long Island’s East End is one of the nation’s most scenic destinations, and as we rapidly approach another high season for the tourism economy, the people of these affected communities urgently need a set of effective solutions that will mitigate excessive noise from helicopters approaching the region,” Zeldin wrote.
If the FAA doesn’t enforce the minimum altitude rules and regulate where helicopters can cross the north shore on their way to the Hamptons in a way that north shore residents can live with, his constituents will demand “more drastic measures” like an all-water route around Orient Point, Zeldin wrote, adding — “with good reason.”
He asked the administrator to reply to his letter within 14 business days due to the fast-approaching summer season.
Today’s public hearing on East Hampton’s
proposed airport restrictions postponed due to snow
Meanwhile, a public hearing on proposed helicopter restrictions at the East Hampton airport, originally scheduled for this afternoon, has been postponed due to today’s snowstorm until March 12. The hearing will take place at 4:30 p.m. at LTV Studios, 75 Industrial Road, Wainscott.
The proposed new laws would ban all helicopters on weekends, implement a mandatory night curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., as well as an extended curfew for noisy aircraft, from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. and limit operations of noisy aircraft to one trip, or one arrival and one departure, during the summer season.
Community anti-noise advocates who favor the new local laws are concerned about what they perceive as a loophole that could allow seaplanes to become the new noisy nuisance in summertime skies. The definition of “noisy aircraft” in the proposed laws does not include seaplanes, so the extended curfew and the “one round-trip per week rule” would not apply to seaplanes, according to the Quiet Skies Coalition. Residents and coalition members are planning to ask the East Hampton Town Board to adopt the proposed laws but immediately revise them to make them applicable to sea planes.
Anti-noise advocates are urging North Fork residents to attend the public hearing in East Hampton to make their concerns known to the town board there.
2015_0305_ Zeldin Letter to FAA
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