CB 11 Unanimously Passes Airplane Noise Resolution

Community Board 11 unanimously passed a motion that calls on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to approve a bill requiring the Port Authority to conduct noise studies to determine how flight patterns affect neighboring communities.

For more than a year, northeast Queens residents have been complaining about constant airplane noise over their communities after the Federal Aviation Administration initiated a new flight pattern out of LaGuardia Airport.

State Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, and state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, held a meeting with the FAA on the flight patterns.

On Monday night, CB 11 passed a resolution that calls on Cuomo to sign legislation that “would require the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to conduct a noise and land use compatibility survey as outlined under federal aviation regulations as well as biennial public hearings regarding aircraft noise issues.”

“It’s an environmental issue,” board member Andy Rothman said. “Every other large city in the U.S. does this. It really needs to be done and it should have been done voluntarily many years ago.”

Rothman said that planes formerly flew about 5,000 feet over homes under the old Whitestone climb out of LaGuardia. But now, they are as low as 2,500 feet under the new tennis climb flight pattern.

“We want a community roundtable, noise monitors and an environmental impact study,” said Janet McEneaney, a board member and founder of Queens Quiet Skies. “The FAA does not have to do impact studies because Congress exempted them last year for any of these new flight procedures. So, let’s tell our senators and representatives that if people are going to get a lot of noise and pollution, there should be a review.”