Selectmen Considering Buy-In To Consortium Battling Flight Plan Rerouting

By John Voket

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi came to Newtown January 7 to brief the Board of Selectman on efforts to overturn Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to reroute up to 150 commercial airline flight a day over southwestern Connecticut. The neighboring official estimated Newtown’s total buy-in to help fund legal defense and a Washington, D.C., lobby would ultimately require about $70,000.

Mr Marconi, who is chair of the efforts, said the town’s initial cost to participate in a multi-jurisdictional consortium including numerous Connecticut and Westchester County, N.Y., communities is $30,000.

The idea to cluster affected communities together to mount legal and political action against the FAA proposal is supported by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is suing the government agency on behalf of the Department of Environmental Protection and Governor M. Jodi Rell.

The state’s action was launched at a press conference in early November 2007 when news of the FAA’s plan was made public. While Mr Marconi’s presentation to the Newtown selectmen Monday focused more on safety and noise issues, the state’s action is focused on the potential environmental harm the added commercial flights could wreak on Fairfield and Litchfield Counties.

According to the governor, who resides in Brookfield, the FAA Redesign Plan would bring unacceptable impacts to Connecticut and particularly to this region of the state.

“We will do everything we can to derail this plan,” Gov Rell said of the multifaceted effort between the state and communities in the consortium. “Working together, we were able to save our sub base. And working together, we can save our air space.

“Increased noise levels and emissions from more planes flying lower will damage our quality of life, our environment, and potentially the property taxes in the affected towns,” the governor added.

The attorney general said that the FAA failed to acknowledge, let alone consider, the impact of increased noise on southwestern Connecticut residents and state parks. In doing so, the FAA violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the agency to consider noise impacts when rerouting flights.

“Safety and efficiency are critical, but the FAA can relieve airport congestion without bombarding southeastern Connecticut with the roar of low-flying aircraft,” Mr Blumenthal said. “We will fight to force complete revision of these flight paths to reduce noise pollution and environmental damage.”

Mr Blumenthal said that the FAA should revise landing and takeoff angles, minimum altitudes, and management of nighttime flights to reduce the impact of the new flight paths.

During his presentation in Newtown, Ridgefield’s first selectmen said the collateral issue to towns in the Danbury–Oxford corridor is related to increasing air traffic from municipal airports in those towns, which would be forced to cruise for longer distances at lower altitudes to stay below newly rerouted commercial flights.

Besides legal and governmental pressure Mr Marconi said the consortium will use to influence the FAA, he is seeing grass roots support springing up among homeowners in affected communities. The effort is being referred to as the “Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning (AFSAP).

“What the alliance hopes to do is ask the Second Circuit Appeals Court to send this project to the FAA to take a look at some of the alternatives that were dismissed early in the process — technical advances that have been made, [as well as] the purchase of Stewart Airport by the Port Authority [of New York and New Jersey] and the plan to move air traffic north has not been taken into consideration,” Mr Marconi told selectmen.

Mr Marconi reassured the Newtown officials that once an initial approved buy-in to the AFSAP was made, the town could opt-out of any future action or future appeals that might increase potential legal and lobbying expenses. Towns could also come back to their applicable boards to request to continue the action.

The more communities participating, the lower the ultimate cost will be to each town. Mr Marconi also said some towns are minimizing taxpayer impact by spreading out their buy-in payments over two fiscal years.

Besides Newtown and Ridgefield, the alliance has identified affected towns, which include: Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Fairfield, New Milford, Norwalk, Pound Ridge, N.Y., Redding, Sherman, Stamford, Weston, Westport. and Wilton.

If Newtown selectmen support the proposal, it would still require approval of the local finance board, Legislative Council, and ultimately taxpayers who would have to endorse the appropriation at a town meeting.

Stamford is reportedly the latest town to approve its full funding of the consortium. The same evening as Mr Marconi was presenting in Newtown, Stamford’s Board of Representatives approved ultimately spending $167,000 to participate.

Rec Center Funding

In other action Monday, the Newtown board approved shifting $400,000 from the construction phase of a town recreation center project to the design phase. The move, which was supported by Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Lilla Dean, who was in attendance, would allow demolition and site preparation to occur concurrently with architect plans being developed.

Selectman Herb Rosenthal said the construction would be expedited if the demolition of Litchfield Hall was accomplished while plans for the rec center were being formulated. The shift would not impact the overall proposed cost of the facility, which is already an approved capital project.

Mr Rosenthal said demolition costs might be less than the $400,000 selectmen ultimately approved if alternate funding sources are qualified. Among those alternate sources is a federal Environmental Protection Agency grant, which has already been filed.