The East Hampton Town Airport (JPX) will remain open. On Oct. 19, New York State Supreme Court Justice Paul J. Baisley granted a motion for an injunction, preventing the city of East Hampton from closing the airport.
The town’s Board of Supervisors planned to close JPX for 33 hours and then reopen it as a private-use and prior permission required airport. The town said they were doing this to address noise concerns.
The new ruling follows a previous court ruling of a temporary injunction preventing the airport’s closure.
In Baisley’s ruling, he cites two issues with the town’s plan to close the airport.
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First, the plan to close and then reopen the airport after 33 hours violates New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Baisley said an environmental impact study would have been needed before the airport could have reopened, according to a report in the New York Post.
Second, Baisley said the plan to set a curfew would have violated the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 (ANCA).
“The court’s decision to reaffirm the impropriety of the town’s actions to curtail operations at their community airport is a significant step in protecting access not just to East Hampton Airport, but to other airports in New York state and around the country,” NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said. “It is vital that town officials recognize their obligations to maintain access under established state and federal statutes.”
Judge Baisley’s latest decision is a definitive ruling; however, it is appealable.
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