Listen to this articleIn the wake of a favorable court ruling last month, aviation groups and businesses that operate at East Hampton Airport are withdrawing their complaint and petition with the U.S. Department of Transportation over onerous restrictions imposed by the Town of East Hampton.
The withdrawal of the Federal Aviation Administration complaint is aimed at starting a dialogue between the groups and the town to resolve a nearly decade-long dispute over operations at the airport.
“The complainants understand that the town actions which constitute the underlying basis for this case also violated other statutory requirements which continue to be applicable…” attorneys Jol Silversmith and Barbara Marrin, of the law firm KMA Zuckert, who represent the aviation groups, wrote in a letter to the FAA. “But the decisions of the New York courts have rendered this proceeding moot, because the town at this time is effectively required by those rulings to comply with its federal obligations. Accordingly, in the interests of efficiency, withdrawal is appropriate.”
A state appellate court ruled in March to reject the town’s appeal of a state Supreme Court decision that kept the town from imposing restrictions at the airport that it said went against federal law.
The appellate court ruled that the town has “failed to comply with the applicable procedural requirements” of the Airport Noise and Capacity Act, when the town tried to close the public airport and turn it into a private facility to skirt federal regulations.
After the town imposed a series of airport restrictions in 2022, including a curfew, limiting the number of flights and requiring prior permission to land, the aviation groups took the town to court and got a temporary restraining order on the town’s actions, which became a permanent injunction in May 2023.
The dispute over restrictions at the airport has been in and out of court since 2016, resulting in a string of decisions that has kept the town from curtailing operations at the facility. A group of Montauk residents had joined the aviation firms in opposing the town’s efforts, since a town study showed that Montauk Airport would see a significant increase in activity if East Hampton Airport was heavily restricted.
The aviation groups say they have pledged to voluntarily alter flight operations as part of a compromise proposal submitted long ago to the town board, however the town didn’t respond to their offering, according to a statement from the groups.
East Hampton Town officials haven’t responded to a request for comment on the long-running dispute.
While the aviation groups are withdrawing their complaint to the FAA, they are also reserving “the right to re-submit their concerns to the FAA should circumstances change, as well as to address issues that have arisen since the complaint and the petition were filed.”