FAA officials to address aircraft noise and safety issues
For the past 40 years, residents living in Floral Park, Stewart Manor and neighboring communities have traveled to the Village of Lawrence to attend the Town/Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) meetings to voice their escalating concerns regarding the increase in aircraft flying over Western Nassau County.
Thanks to the continued efforts of Garden City Village Trustee and Environmental Advisory Board Chairman Laurence Quinn, the February 27 meeting will be held for the first time at the Garden City Library.
High level representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and Port Authority of NY and NJ are expected to discuss why there has been a significant increase in the number of commercial aircraft flying en route to JFK runway 22L over the Nassau County communities of Garden City, Old Westbury, Williston Park, Westbury, Mineola, Albertson, East Williston, East Hills, Stewart Manor and Floral Park.
The forum will additionally address concerns about the FAA’s “NextGen” program, which is the airline industry’s new GPS controlled navigation system.
Quinn said he hopes to see a large crowd attend and will address several issues with FAA officials. In particular, he will address why from 2004 to 2012 the volume of airplanes as a percentage of airport use over Garden City “went from 5 percent to about 26 percent,” he said at a village board meeting on Feb. 21.
Appointed liaison of TVASNAC for the Village of Stewart Manor, Cristina T. O’Keefe explains that the upcoming meeting will offer local residents in Stewart Manor, Floral Park and Garden City an opportunity to learn more about aircraft noise and safety issues and voice their concerns.
Since the number of aircraft flying over Floral Park, Stewart Manor and Garden City has tripled in a short amount of time, many communities have suggested that an environmental study should be performed to measure the effects of increased aircraft noise and pollution, O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe pointed that as part of the new FAA funding legislation recently signed by President Obama, an environmental study of the effects of the Next Gen technology is not required for existing flight paths due to a “categorical exclusion.”
In the future, O’Keefe said the legislation could limit the ability for communities to wage environmental complaints regarding increased aircraft noise and pollution. “The bill that has gone through Congress that got passed basically says that whatever happens now with the new technology that the FAA is implementing, the GPS technology, they (the FAA) won’t ever have to do an environmental study as part of the Next Gen rollout,” she said.
TVASNAC is comprised of several villages in the Town of Hempstead, including Floral Park, Stewart Manor, Garden City, Atlantic Beach, Cedarhurst, Island Park, Lawrence, Long Beach, New Hyde Park, Valley Stream, Woodburgh and Malverne.
The meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Garden City Library, located at 60 Seventh St.
