Board Considers Support for Quiet Skies Consultant

by Judy Silberstein

(March 2, 2006) Should the Village of Larchmont contribute $15,000 towards an effort to dampen airplane noise over the community?

Making the case for the contribution were Patty Horing, Michael Alfieri, John LeBoutillier and Sally Wright from the Quiet Skies Committee of WRAIN, who appeared before the Larchmont Board of Trustees at the Monday, February 27 public meeting. Following the FAA’s February 9 presentation at Murray Avenue School on plans to redesign the northeastern airspace, Ms. Horing said her group is more convinced than ever that now is a “once in a life time opportunity” for the community to make its needs heard, and that the FAA’s plans are too difficult to understand and impact without expert advice. To help guide them through the highly technical material, Quiet Skies has opted to hire a team of consultants from Williams Aviation that will include a former air traffic controller at La Guardia and an attorney specializing in airplane noise abatement. Now they are looking for help in covering the estimated $100K in consultancy fees.

Quiet Skies members received a sympathetic response along with a number of questions from the Board: What would the consultants do? How much help would the $15K (and total $100K) purchase? Is there any hope for reducing airplane noise? However, the Board took no final action. The issue will be discussed again at the Monday, March 6 meeting, which will allow for a required public notice that the Board is considering a non-budgeted expenditure over $5000. In the interim, Village Attorney Jim Staudt will be researching appropriate ways to contribute to an effort controlled by a non-profit entity. Trustee Liz Feld also wanted time for the Board to consider how it would fund the request and how the $15K fit in the broader context of the overall budget.

What would Quiet Skies and the municipalities get from the consultants, asked Mayor Ken Bialo and Trustee Anne McAndrews. Would $100K cover the process through to the Final Environmental Impact Statement?

Ms. Horing explained that it was difficult to know in advance how long the process would take, but the fee would pay for:

• analysis by the consultants of the multi-thousands of pages in the DEIS
  
• a search for errors and omissions
  
• and then help negotiating with the FAA for actions that would benefit the community

“What’s not in the DEIS may be as important or even more important than what is,” explained Ms. Horing after the meeting. Following the FAA presentation she had acknowledged that the FAA’s plans are focused on increasing efficiency of air traffic, and not on mitigating noise. But she said, “We don’t necessarily have to accept the given framework of the project – with [consultant] Williams’ help we can propose mitigating strategies they haven’t even considered.” In this way, Quiet Skies would operate, in some sense, as a partner to the FAA. “We’d be helping the FAA to help us.”

But is the situation hopeless? Trustee Liz Feld wanted to know what to say to residents who were questioning whether it was realistic to expect that anything could be done. Ms. Horing noted that things could easily get much worse than they already are.

“We don’t know what the outcome will be,” Ms. Horing later explained, “but by hiring the consultant, we dramatically improve our chances of preventing noise from getting worse – and hopefully even lowering it.” John LeBoutillier said, “There is reason to be hopeful” and that there are a lot of different ways the FAA can mitigate noise. For example, Ms. Horing said, residents living under what she called the “path of pain” could get some relief if planes were routed over a broader path on the way to La Guardia. “Even a quarter mile can make a difference,” she said.

Mayor Bialo pointed out, “When we began our fight against IKEA, no one felt we were going to win.” The Village hired a legal consultant, who assisted in the ultimately successful effort to discourage IKEA from developing a “big box” store near Larchmont’s border with New Rochelle. “It was very expensive,” said the mayor, “but it was a good investment.” Trustee Marlene Kolbert noted that despite free advice from professionals living in the community, “ultimately we’ve had to have expert testimony” in the fight over Davids Island and IKEA.

“I was at the FAA meeting, “ said Trustee Mike Wiener, who has an engineering background. He said, on this topic, “I’m a babe in the woods.”

No matter what their expertise, the consultant team will have to work quickly: the FAA is accepting comments on the DEIS only until June 1. Then the FAA has a year to develop a final document, complete with responses to public comment and plans for mitigating the impacts of whatever plan is suggested.

To get things moving, the Quiet Skies group has already raised $12K privately and, after researching the field of consultants, contracted with Williams Aviation. They are also preparing to raise private funds for approximately half of the consultant’s expected $100K bill. Going forward, the group will be waiting to hear if their presentation to the Larchmont Board – and earlier ones at the Village of Mamaroneck and Town of Mamaroneck Boards – succeed in garnering $15K from each municipality.