Community Corner

State Lawmakers Call for Study of Aircraft Noise

The study would most likely be conducted by an environmental consultant or outside contracting firm.

Story by Geoffrey Walter:

Local and state representatives detailed the next steps needed to quiet local airplane noise during a press conference Wednesday in New Hyde Park.

The conference came on the heels of the passage of a bill last week in the New York State Legislature to address the concerns of aircraft noise in local communities in western Nassau County and Queens over which airplanes pass on their way to and from JFK and LaGuardia airports.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently put in place a new flightpath pattern for the New York metro area, which has caused much of the complaints from residents about noise, putting the path of the planes over heavily residential neighborhoods, more so than in the past, with planes coming overhead and landing at about one-minute intervals.

“This decision was made without any community input whatsoever and no environmental impact study," Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, said. "In fact, the FAA for our area in northeast Queens issued a categorical exclusion that said that their change would have no significant impact on the surrounding communities so they could go ahead with it; basically self-certifying that everything’s going to be fine.”

Airplane safety regulations require planes to land into the wind, which has been coming from the southwest for the past 19 months, placing their patterns directly over residential neighborhoods.

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Various municipalities affected by low-flying aircraft formed the group TVASNAC (Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee), which is dedicated to reducing such air traffic and noise over the residential areas in its members’ municipalities. The village of Garden City is a member of TVASNAC.

The bill requires the Port Authority to enter into the “Part 150 Program” that allows for mitigation efforts at the local level.

In order to qualify for federal funding, a Part 150 study has to be conducted by the airport, in this case JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, “and it would allow us to study the noise concerns that have become far too common in our local communities and helpfully move us towards broader conversation of addressing this issue,” Assemblyman Edward Ra, R-Franklin Square, said.

The legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jack Martins, R-Mineola, and Sen. Kemp Hannon, R-Garden City. "The noise generated by all these overflights has increased steadily over time, and it's incumbent on the PA to conduct a noise study to ensure that aircraft noise is given proper consideration by airport operators when they determine which runways and approach paths to use," Hannon said.

The study would most likely be conducted by an environmental consultant or outside contracting firm. Federal funding for the program is available, though exactly how much remains unclear due to governmental sequestration.

Ra stated that such studies have been conducted at other airports in New York State including Albany and Buffalo, as well as 470 across the country and that more than $5 billion has been spent on the Part 150 program since its inception.

The bill would also provide for annual hearings where residents of the counties around the airports could address Port Authority commissioners directly with noise complaints.

The legislation must now be signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Any legislation having to deal with the Port Authority must, however, be passed by both the state governments of New York and New Jersey in order to become binding.

Ra stated that bill (S.2876) has already been introduced in the New Jersey State Legislature, but that the bill does not have a timeline in which it must be passed. The bill does specify a date for the study to be conducted.

“If that becomes an unrealistic end date because New Jersey hasn’t passed it yet, obviously we’d have to explore a chapter amendment or something like that to move the date forward because we certainly want the study done," Ra said. "But we do want it done right, we don’t want it rushed."


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