Oct 19, 2007
Lewisboro Town Board
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Town to oppose airplane rerouting plans
Town Board members decided Tuesday night to draft a resolution officially protesting plans for the redesign of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airspace over Westchester County.
The FAA plans are drawing increasing fire from area residents who fear their quality of life will be impacted by a dramatic increase in the number of airplanes flying overhead on their way to airports in the region.
The redesign is the most extensive in 50 years and is set to be implemented from 2007 through 2011. The new plan would put nearly 2,000 planes over parts of northeastern Westchester on a daily basis.
Pressure needed
Westchester County Legislator Ursula LaMotte, District 2, is active in the move to put a halt to the current FAA plans. She appeared at Tuesday night’s Town Board meeting to ask Lewisboro officials to join with adjacent towns, including Pound Ridge, to officially protest them.
Ms. LaMotte was joined by Heather Wolf, a Pound Ridge resident active with Our Airspace.Org, a local pressure group formed to fight the FAA move.
“We are all very concerned about this redesign,” Ms. LaMotte said. “It’s starting here in the East and will move west across the country. There are very serious concerns. Pound Ridge has hired an attorney to look into this and asked Westchester County to become actively involved. The fact is that many more planes will be flying lower overhead.”
Ms. LaMotte said she was unclear about the county’s position on the matter.
“I don’t know what they are going to do at this point,” she said. “But I know we have to try to stop what is going on here in a totally flawed process. Many towns seem to be prepared to sue the FAA and I wanted you to consider what action you might want to take after Heather makes her presentation.”
FAA plans
Ms. Wolf described the situation.
“It’s all about expanding capacity and making money,” she said. “The FAA wants to get as many planes in the air as possible and put them vertically and horizontally closer together. But this is not a NIMBY (not in my back yard) issue. It is going to affect millions of people in the New York area.”
Ms. Wolf said a lot of issues surrounding due process had not been followed and the impacts on affected communities would be enormous.
“Safety risks include low altitude, lack of safe distance, bird strikes, possible fuel jettison over land, and air quality degradation,” she said. “Environmental risks include aircraft emissions, impact on water and air qualities, and an increase in noise. The redesign will also have some indirect impacts including effect on land value and possible human health risks from aircraft emissions.”
Like Ms. LaMotte, Ms. Wolf described the whole project as “deeply flawed.”
“It has been plagued by project management breakdowns, funding problems, flawed models, lack of environmental impact studies, invalid data, and insufficient testing,” she said.
“We need to pressure Senators [Charles] Schumer and [Hillary] Clinton and Congressman [John] Hall to do something about this before it is too late,” she said. “We need to ask them to take a stand against it.”
Ms. LaMotte said that some county officials had heard presentations on the issues involved, but to her knowledge nothing had happened.
Action
Town Board member Peter DeLucia asked what the Lewisboro Town Board needed to do to get involved, and Town Supervisor Edward Mahoney said he believed Westchester County would be the most effective in applying pressure.
Ms. LaMotte addressed both.
“The county would definitely be the most effective, but they don’t seem to be willing to move,” she said. “Lewisboro can help by considering a resolution expressing your objections to the FAA redesign of our airspace. The lawsuit is set to be filed against the FAA on Nov. 4.”
Mr. Mahoney said the Town Board would consider the resolution.
“It’s amazing that something like this can get on the front burner because of economics,” he said. “It’s embarrassing that the county is not doing anything about this. These are our elected officials and they should be taking action.”
Officials agreed to prepare and review a draft resolution modeled on those from adjacent towns, including Pound Ridge.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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