Larchmont Contributing $15K to Quiet Skies Campaign

by Judy Silberstein

(March 9, 2006) After waiting a week to allow for proper notification, the Village of Larchmont Board of Trustees voted unanimously on March 6 to contribute $15,000 to help the Quiet Skies Committee of WRAIN in their bid to ameliorate airplane noise over Larchmont and Mamaroneck. The funds, $10K for aviation consultants and $5K for legal help, will go towards an estimated $100,000 bill for analyzing and responding to the FAA’s plans for redesigning airspace over the northeastern United States. The Board’s decision came with some time pressure, given a June 1 deadline for submitting comments on the plans, the many thousands of pages to be analyzed, and the need to get input from local officials before the consultants can negotiate with the FAA on ways to provide local relief from the impact of low-flying planes. (See: Board Considers Support for Quiet Skies Consultant)

“We do need to more forward,” said Trustee Mike Wiener. He cited the importance of: getting the FAA to look at the impact of plane landings – not just take offs; getting help with the technical nature of the plans; and acting now to impact the long term. “This would be a great use for the funding,” he said. Trustee Marlene Kolbert reiterated her judgment that big fights - like those over IKEA or Davids Island - required expert advice. Trustee Liz Feld noted the goal would be to use the public money for leverage to raise private money, which will cover the bulk of the bill.

At last week’s meeting, a contingent from the Quiet Skies group described how they had already used their own funds to contract with the Williams Aviation firm to start sifting through the thousands of pages in the FAA Draft Environmental Impact Statement, especially to search for errors and omissions that would provide opportunities to ask for changes. Plans are to hire a separate consulting attorney to conduct negotiation with the FAA.

“Our hope is if we can issue a letter and make it easy for the FAA to take us ‘off the table,’ they will want to do that,” explained Joel Finard, a Quiet Skies member who was at the meeting to answer the Board’s remaining questions. According to Mr. Finard, Williams Aviation has been involved with 50 similar projects and would not have agreed to the consultation unless there was “a great opportunity for change.” He noted, “Planes could be flying much higher .. and planes could be using the Sound much more.” Providing the technical and legal muscle to request these sorts of noise abatements is what Quiet Skies will be asking from the consultants.

Quiet Skies has also asked the Town of Mamaroneck and Village of Mamaroneck to each contribute $15K, but their boards have not yet voted on the matter, and according to Mayor Ken Bialo, are waiting to see what Larchmont will do. He suggested Larchmont should take the lead, but also cautioned that “we shouldn’t fool ourselves that even if the ideal case comes about” and the FAA “throws Larchmont these bones” Larchmont won’t be facing further problems down the line.

Following the vote, the mayor said he was "delighted to be looking forward to an 'IKEA-sized' victory."

"We're thrilled that Larchmont has supported the Quiet Skies initiative and we're looking forward to protecting the future airspace of Larchmont," said Mr. Finard, as he left the meeting and prepared to report back to the rest of his committee.

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