East Hampton Town Files Petition To Gain Control Of Its Airport

EAST HAMPTON, NY —East Hampton Town filed a petition Monday to seek local control over its airport.

The petition was filed "to overturn an extraordinary and unprecedented appeals court decision that would rob East Hampton and thousands of other local airport sponsors of their ability to manage their airport, in the best interests of their residents," according to a release from Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell's office.

East Hampton Town, by outside appellate attorneys Kathleen Sullivan and David Cooper of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, LLP, filed a petition in the Supreme Court of the United States seeking to restore local control at East Hampton Airport.

The recent decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined the town’s curfew restrictions at the East Hampton Airport.

“For the last three years, this town board has been fighting to regain local control of our airport,” said Supervisor Larry Cantwell. “We followed the FAA’s advice and elected to forgo federal funding so that we could protect our residents. We engaged in a lengthy public process to identify meaningful but reasonable restrictions, and the District Court agreed that we met that test. But, with the stroke of a pen, the appeals court decision has federalized our airport and stripped us – and the thousands of similarly situated airports – of the ability to exert local control. We cannot let that decision stand.”

The town adopted two local laws instituting year-round curfews in April, 2015: one, a mandatory nighttime curfew, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and the other, an extended curfew on noisy aircraft, from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m.

In addition, the town also enacted a third law imposing a one-trip-a-week restriction on noisy aircraft. A group of opponents promptly filed a legal action in federal court seeking to delay implementation of the local laws.

Upon initial review, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York confirmed that “it cannot be argued that the town lacked the data to support a finding of a noise problem at the airport” and upheld the two curfews as reasonable.

The District Court preliminarily enjoined the one-trip-per week limit.

On appeal, however, the Second Circuit "radically reversed decades of FAA practice and the accepted interpretation of federal aviation law, by prohibiting any airport from making local decisions, even when the airport proprietor does not receive federal funds," the release said. "The effect is an unprecedented expansion of federal regulatory authority," the release said.

Town board members agreed. “The last thing we need is the federal government running our airport. The Second Circuit’s decision subjects us to an onerous and costly FAA review process that places the solution to the noise problem in the hands of the FAA. That is unacceptable. We have fought long and hard to protect our quality of life and it is too important to let the court of appeals undermine that,” stated Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez.

She added, “The town board is pursuing all avenues for redress – both in the courts and in Congress – and we will continue the fight until we regain local control of East Hampton Airport."

Patch file photo.