Southold Town is petitioning the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider its prior rulemaking extending the north shore helicopter route and reopen the docket for public comment.
In a petition filed yesterday with the federal agency, the town says the FAA’s rulemaking in July violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act, depriving Southold Town and the public of their right to notice and opportunity to be heard. The town also charges the agency with violating presidential executive order 13132, which the town says required the FAA to consult with Southold officials before extending the route. The rulemaking was also arbitrary and capricious, the town argues.
The town is prepared to take the federal agency to court, according to officials, but decided to give the FAA the chance to remedy the wrong on its own.
The FAA in July published its decision to summarily extend through 2020 the north shore helicopter route, which has been funneling virtually all NYC-Hamptons helicopter traffic over the North Fork since 2012. The rule was due to sunset Aug. 6.
The FAA published a final rule in the July 25 Federal Register extending the route for four years, surprising residents, local elected official and even the East End congressman, Rep. Lee Zeldin. It did not provide the 30-day public comment period prior to the rule adoption, as required by the Federal Administrative Procedure Act. The agency justified dispensing with the comment period by saying it did not want to confuse helicopter pilots mid-season.
Its denial of the public’s right to comment “shielded the FAA from readily available substantive evidence which shows that the four-year extension was arbitrary, irrational and contrary to the evidence,” according to the petition, which was prepared by the town’s pro bono special counsel, James Harmon, who is also a member of Southold’s helicopter task force.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, flanked by county, state and other local officials, announced the filing of the petition at a press conference in Southold Town Hall this morning.
“The helicopter industry would like nothing better than to divide and conquer us,” said South Fork Assemblyman Fred Thiele. “We’re not going to let that happen. It concerns all of us. We have to work together to make the federal government, to make the FAA, do the right thing and help us protect the interests of our constituents.”
North Fork Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo observed that when the small communities of the East End “coalesce … and have a collective voice, we’re stronger.”
County Legislator Al Krupski who was joined at the press conference by Legislator Bridget Fleming, said the helicopter noise problem is “not a South Fork issue or a North Fork issue, it’s an East End issue.”
“The FAA is broken,” Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said. “There are two ways to fix it. One is through a federal judge the other is through acts of Congress,” he said. He praised Rep. Lee Zeldin for fighting on behalf of local residents on this issue and said he does not believe the U.S. senators from New York are advocating for the East End as zealously as they could be.
Riverhead will likely be joining Southold in the complaint, said Riverhead Councilman Tim Hubbard, who is chairman of the helicopter task force in Riverhead. He thanked Southold and citizens like Theresa McKaskie for “laying the groundwork” in the fight for quiet skies.
“This is the process we need to go through,” McKaskie, a Mattituck resident, said after the press conference. She has organized residents in reporting helicopter noise to the East Hampton Airport, the FAA and the helicopter pilots trade group. “We must take this route to stand up for the North Fork and East End of Long Island,” she said.
“We apparently are being ignored, unfortunately,” McKaskie said.
