Goodspeed Airport loses legal fight

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that the owner of the Goodspeed Airport improperly cleared trees from his property in late 2001.

In a decision issued Thursday, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the town was within its rights when it issued a cease-and-desist order against the East Haddam airport’s owner, Timothy Mellon, after he cleared trees from a regulated wetlands area near the end of the small airfield.

That order touched off a nearly decade-long legal struggle between the town, the state and Mellon after Mellon sued, asserting that federal laws regulating air safety trumped local and state land-use laws. He and his lawyers argued that he didn’t need a wetlands permit to take down trees he felt were impeding safety at the small airfield.

The three-judge 2^nd Circuit Court, however, disagreed, backing the town’s and state’s argument that the trees did not present a safety hazard and therefore, did not pre-empt their regulatory authority.

Federal aviation law allows the pre-emption of some local and state land use regulations if air traffic safety is at risk.

Mellon sought the appeal after two lower courts, one state, and the other federal, also sided with the town’s position.

Mellon in 2001 clear-cut several acres of trees on conservation land that abuts his airport property and without the land owner’s permission. The state later sued Mellon, who lives in Lyme and is heir to the Mellon family fortune, and he was ordered to pay $67,000 in damages.

He sued to overturn that decision, even taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but lost that legal battle as well.

His lawyer, John R. Bashaw of New Haven, said Friday that Mellon is now weighing his options in light of this latest ruling. One of those options, he said, might include seeking a permit from the town’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission to determine if the town would allow the cutting of trees in a regulated area.

Mark Walter, the town’s first selectman, said he was gratified by the court’s decision and hopes it finally puts an end to the “lengthy and costly” defense the town was forced into when Mellon sued.