Lawmakers, Residents Outraged Over FAA Decision to Extend North Shore Helicopter Route 4 Years

After years of public protest and pleading, residents of the North Fork who've seen their bucolic quality of life shattered by aircraft noise are seeing red now that the Federal Aviation Administration plans to extend the North Shore route for four years.

The FAA rule regarding the North Shore route, which was set to expire August 6, will be extended four years, according to an FAA decision Monday. The FAA said the hope was to continue research during the next four years to determine future actions.

And both lawmakers and residents are livid.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, who spoke out just Saturday at a meeting of Southold Voice at the Peconic Recreation Center in favor of a South Shore route, released a statement Saturday: “The FAA's announcement that they will be extending the North Shore route for four years is an unacceptable example of incompetence and arrogance on the part of faceless, unelected and unaccountable federal bureaucrats."

He added, "This decision violates the Administrative Procedures Act, a federal law that requires transparency and a public comment period on any major regulatory decisions. The agency's written explanation for this extension, including the justification for its lack of public comment or notice, reaches a new level of tone-deafness, when citing ‘good cause for immediate adoption without prior notice’. This is the unresponsive bureaucracy at its worst."

Zeldin said despite repeated follow up from himself, his office, the House Subcommittee on Aviation, other elected officials, and countless concerned citizens on the East End "the FAA has chosen to go radio silent and release this directive in secret as if the American public is the enemy."

In October, 2015, Zeldin said he told AA Administrator Huerta that the North Shore route should be extended for no longer than one year, with an "extensive strengthening of altitude requirements and enforcement of flight standards", and a true all water route over the Atlantic Ocean as the permanent solution.

"The FAA Administrator should immediately reconsider this decision, and if he is unwilling to respond to Congress, or to the concerns of the people whom we were elected to represent, then he should resign or be replaced," Zeldin said.

He vowed to continue working to protect residents of the East End whose quality of life is "severely impacted" by aircraft noise.

On Saturday, Zeldin said while he's received some support from New York State Senators Chuck Schumer, he's heard nothing from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. In his statement, he said he hopes both will join him in calling on the FAA to put in place a more permanent fix such as the South Shore all water route.

Furious residents

Mattituck resident Teresa McCaskie, who sits on Southold's helicopter noise steering committee, has been crying out for relief from the noise for years, and was nothing short of livid at the news of the four-year extension.

"I am utterly frustrated in the seemingly covert decision to extend the FAA Mandated North Shore route without fixing the many loopholes that continue to exist in the said North Shore route. Clearly our quality of life on the North Fork is not a priority in the senators' eyes. This route affects thousands of people every living day," she said.

Southold Town Councilman Bob Ghosio, who also sits on the committee, blasted the decision: "I find it suspect that we were told there would be a 30-day comment period and the FAA decided to forego comments, especially with the amount of complaints they have received from the East End," he said.

"In fact, the Southold helicopter committee has been busy preparing the report of evidence proving that the North Shore route has been extremely detrimental to the quality of life for many of our town's residents since its inception," Ghosio said, adding that the report was due to be presented at a Southold town board work session on Tuesday, and was to be attached to a resolution for the town board to vote on Tuesday night.

If adopted, the resolution, he said, stated the town's official stance "that the town was firmly against extending the use of the North Shore route. The argument that the FAA uses to forego comments because it does not want to confuse pilots mid season, is spurious at best. If that was truly the case, then why extend it four years and not three months?"

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the news wasn't a shocker. "I wasn't surprised. If you are Sen. Schumer, you are not going to listen to the more sparsely populated North Fork. Elected officials like him go to where the votes are — or the money is."

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell was similarly displeased. "The mandatory North Shore route has not reduced aircraft noise impacting residents of the East End. Route management has failed to provide the relief residents deserve," he said.

The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.