Board of Alders' Finance Board OKs Tweed-New Haven Airport Lease

NEW HAVEN, CT —The New Haven Board of Alders’ Finance Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve a new, more than four decade-long lease between the city and the Tweed New-Haven Airport Authority. The lease will be discussed and voted on by the full Board of Alders will later this year.

Tweed Executive Director Sean Scanlon called the vote an "an important milestone."

Scanlon said the fiance committee's blessing paves the way for "broader plans" around the more than $100 million airport expansion project which he said will create "thousands of local jobs and eliminate the need for existing state and city subsidies," currently totaling around $1.8 million annually.

“When we first announced this project, we made clear there were still many steps necessary to make it a reality," Scanlon said following the Monday night vote. "Tonight was one of those critical steps."

The New Haven Register reported that a number of airport neighbors, including East Haven residents, shared their concerns "about everything from flooding to traffic to asthma to climate change."

Scanlon said that a "community benefits plan" will be discussed with the airport's very close neighbor: the town of East Haven.

“Of course, the voices of the airports’ closest neighbors and their local elected officials have also been welcomed throughout this process, both at the many public meetings and hearings that have been held and in countless one-on-one conversations," Scanlon said in a news release. "Over the coming weeks, we will continue to work with them to structure a community benefits plan that will best serve the interests of New Haven and East Haven, particularly those neighbors closest to the airport."

Scanlon said that he'll "soon release details of a plan crafted specifically with their input, and we will do so before a final vote of the Board of Alders."

Not so fast, said East Haven Mayor Joseph A. Carfora, who while acknowledging that the vote is among the hurdles the airport authority needs to clear to move forward, he told Patch that the expansion is "far from a done deal on the East Haven side."

"As I have said from the very beginning, the Tweed authority, the city New Haven, and frankly, the state, can set whatever deadlines, and requirements they see fit. Those deadlines and those requirements will have little, if any, impact on our process and timeline here in East Haven," Carfora said. He pointed to statement he and state Rep. Joe Zullo made earlier this month.

"My position continues to be clear and direct," Carfora said. "But to be quite blunt here, the Tweed airport terminal expansion is far from a done deal on the East Haven side. And I’ll say it again; this airport’s expansion will not take place on the backs of the Town of East Haven."

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