For 20 years, the East Hampton Airport has been controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). By accepting FAA grants to maintain and expand the airport, the Town of East Hampton relinquished control over the nearly 600 acres of public land. As overhead traffic picked up over the past decade, the Town was powerless to stop the noise of low-flying helicopters or control the airport’s environmental impact. 

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The Town Board has heroically tried multiple times to put a stop to the 24/7 flights and regain control. For example, in 2015 the East Hampton Town Board adopted a series of regulations to curb the excessive noise from inbound flights by imposing a flight curfew and limiting designated noisy aircrafts to landing only once a week. But, by 2017 federal courts overruled these local mandates, claiming that these regulations did not meet FAA guidelines. 

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The Town tried other methods to assert local control over the airport. We worked to get a Part 161 study exemption to impose airport curfews, and our congressional representatives worked to amend FAA regulations to allow for curfews as well. 

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But no matter how we, and our Town Board, tried to regulate the airport, we have been blocked at every turn. Now, as our FAA obligations have expired, we are a PPR airport. And we can take back community control. We can eliminate the incessant and dangerous overhead traffic and preserve our Town’s environment by closing the East Hampton Airport and creating something that actually serves the greater good of this community.