When East Hampton enacts new airport rules, seaplanes may be next Hamptons-bound aerial nuisance, locals fear

North Fork residents hoping for relief from helicopter noise are fearful that seaplanes could be their next nemesis.

Four proposed local laws scheduled for a March 5 public hearing before the East Hampton Town Board do not impose extended curfew and weekly trip limits on seaplanes, and that’s got the Quiet Skies Coalition and North Fork anti-noise advocates worried.

The proposed local laws would ban all helicopters on weekends, implement a mandatory night curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., impose an extended curfew for noisy aircraft, from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. and limit operations of “noisy” aircraft to one round trip — per week during the summer season.

But the definition of “noisy” aircraft in the proposed legislation does not include seaplanes, according to the Quiet Skies Coalition. That means the extended curfew and the “one round-trip per week rule” would not apply to seaplanes.

If those restrictions are not made applicable to seaplanes, Hamptons-bound traffic will switch to seaplanes from helicopters, making it “highly likely that there will be an explosion of seaplane traffic because of the weekend ban on helicopters and the 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. curfew on noisy helicopters,” the coalition said in a statement released this week.

“The former helicopter users will just migrate to the seaplanes because the Manhattan seaplane dock at 23rd St is just down the river, a mere 11 blocks, from the 34th St heliport,” the group said.

The Quiet Skies Coalition is urging the East Hampton Town Board to adopt the new rules, which it believes will provide long-sought relief from helicopter noise, but to move immediately to amend them to make the same restrictions apply to seaplanes.

The group also believes the disparate treatment of helicopters and seaplanes will make the new laws more difficult to defend in court.

“Therefore, we believe it imperative that the Board review the newly enacted local laws, once adopted, and amend them as soon as possible after enactment so as to impose the one-round-trip-per-week limitation and the 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. curfew on noisy turboprop and piston aircraft,” the coalition said.

“The board needs to hear from the community that weakening these two laws in this manner is the wrong move,” said Teresa McCaskie of Mattituck, who has been rallying North Fork residents to speak out against helicopter noise.

“We fully support the rules East Hampton is proposing,” Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said. Riverhead will submit a letter of support for the proposed laws, he said.

The East Hampton Town Board has scheduled a public hearing on the proposed measures for March 5 at 4:30 p.m. at LTV Studios, located at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.

Lisa Finn contributed reporting.

Photo caption: StndAir is one of companies providing Manhattan to East Hampton seaplane service out of the 23rd Street seaplane dock. (Photo: Stndair website)