Residents near Kennedy dissatisfied with noise study progress
Low flying planes fly over the Rosedale neighborhood in Queens as they take off and land a JFK airport on Sept. 15, 2016. Credit: Anthony Lanzilote
Residents of neighborhoods around Kennedy Airport concerned about airplane noise expressed dissatisfaction last night with the answers they got from the Port Authority at a community meeting in Queens.
“I didn’t learn anything,” John Hunis, 74, of Valley Stream, said as he left the meeting in a school auditorium on 241st Street in Rosedale. “I came here for answer and all I got was a lot of nonsense.”
Port Authority officials tried to explain they were there to inform and educate residents about a noise study, which will determine whether federal money will eventually be made available for noise remediation, such as soundproofing homes.
The officials said they were bound by Federal Aviation Administration rules in how they conducted the study, and were not able to answer some specific questions, such as the one posed by Yvette Stong-Banks of Laurelton, who wanted to know specific decibel levels for planes landing and taking off.
The officials explained that their maps and noise measurements were based on computer models and did not deal with matching specific planes to a specific noise level.
“I wanted to know that information, and I didn’t get it. I’m disappointed,” Strong-Banks said afterward.
Thea Rembert, 50, who said she lives a few blocks from the airport, said as she left that the Port Authority was overly concerned with “process.”
People attend a meeting on airplane noise in southern Queens, at St. Clare's Catholic Academy in Queens on Sept. 15, 2016. Credit: Anthony Lanzilote
“Process? They’ve been processing for years and years, and they still don’t have answers,” Rembert said.
The noise from passing flights using Kennedy has drawn complaints for years from several Long Island communities, including Floral Park, East Hills, Malverne, Old Brookville and Roslyn Heights.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an order on March 24, 2014 directing the Port Authority — operator of Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports — to address the complaints of residents living in the flight paths of the New York airports.
The Port Authority agreed seven months later to pay $8 million to Environmental Science Associates of California to conduct noise compatibility studies for Kennedy and LaGuardia airports and recommend ways to reduce unwanted sound.
