Christopher Peak photo
Tweed-New Haven Airport.
The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down the state attorney general’s latest appeal in a decade-long lawsuit regarding Tweed-New Haven Airport’s planned runway expansion, thereby clearing a major legal hurdle for the East Shore airport’s bid to increase local airplane service.
Tweed-New Haven Airport Executive Director Sean Scanlon announced and celebrated that Supreme Court decision in an email press release sent out Monday morning.
The press release noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s petition asking the top federal court to hear the case Tong v. Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority.
Tong had filed that writ of certiorari in December after a federal appeals court in July issued a ruling that would overturn the state’s prohibition on expanding the airport’s runway.
“Today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court to deny review of the court of appeals’ decision means that after ten years of limitations, Tweed-New Haven Airport is finally free to pursue expanding our runway within our existing property lines and to meet the growing demand for more frequent air service in southern Connecticut,” wrote Scanlon (pictured).
“We are very excited about what this will mean in terms of new air service in New Haven and to our local economy and we look forward to working with all local stakeholders including our neighbors to determine how best to move forward now that this case is finally over.”
“We vigorously pursued our case to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Tong said in an email statement Monday morning. “While we strongly believe the Court should have granted cert in this case, we respect the Court’s decision.”
Scanlon said in a follow-up email that the airport authority is currently in the middle of its Master Plan process, which is required by the Federal Aviation Authority and is slated to run through March 2021. That process is “basically a roadmap for what we want the next 10 to 15 years to look like at the airport,” he wrote. “We come up with that through detailed economic forecasting, environmental impact studies and, very importantly, public input.”
The airport held its first public meetings for that Master Plan process in December. Scanlon said the next such public meetings are scheduled for June.
“Now that the runway limit is legally off the table, our goal over the next few months is to consider what length the airlines are asking for in order to increase service, determine what the economic and environmental impact of that would be and engage the region and neighborhood in a collaborative dialogue about what the future looks like and how we can co-exist and prosper together,” he wrote.
The airport first filed the lawsuit over a decade ago in response to a 2009 state law that prevented the airport from lengthening its runway beyond 5,600 feet.
Airport expansion supporters have long argued that a longer runway could attract more service providers and flights, including to Chicago or to Washington D.C. Currently, only American Airlines runs three flights a day to Philadelphia and one flight on Saturdays to Charlotte.
Opponents have argued that a longer runway and increased service would mean louder jets and clogged streets for Morris Cove residents, as well as possible environmental dangers in a part of the city that is uniquely vulnerable to flooding.
Morris Cove resident and outspoken critic of Tweed expansion Sean O’Brien told the Independent that the the social disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic have only reinforced his concerns about climate change-related social and economic fallout that will be exacerbated by airplane travel.
“COVID-19 has blanketed New Haven with uncertainty and tragedy that will pale in comparison to what we’re facing as the effects of Climate Change hit home in the coming years,” he wrote by email. “We need to invest in coastal infrastructure to protect the homes, and tax base, of New Haven. Rather than threaten vital wetlands and continue the costly airport experiment, we need to look toward sustainable economic development — the airline industry is not only vulnerable, it’s the first to fall in every crisis.”
Fellow neighborhood resident and Tweed expansion critic Rachel Heerema agreed. “Of course, I’m disappointed in the decision,” she told the Independent by email. “This is just one step in the decision-making path to paving more of the wetlands surrounding Tweed. I’m still hopeful that DEEP, and the Master Plan process actually, will realize what an environmentally sensitive area this is, and stop paving. We need to have a real talk about the risks to the human population as well.”
State Sen. Martin Looney, whose district includes the airport, noted that the Supreme Court’s decision today leaves the country with two separate set of directives about whether local quasi-government authorities can sue to overturn a law passed by a state that governs them. He cited a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling, on the West Coast, that on this question contradicts the ruling by the Second Circuit, which covers the part of the country including Connecticut. “The rest of the country,” Looney quipped, can for now “pick and choose between the two.”
“That’s a recipe for potential chaos around the country — if every town or authority believes they can now sue,” Looney said.
Looney said he is “clearly disappointed with the decision. I really believe there were significant issues of federalism there.”
Mayor Justin Elicker, meanwhile, heralded the decision as a definitive end to one era of Tweed’s history and the beginning of another.
“The decision from the Supreme Court, announced today, that the appeal regarding the expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport will not be heard, brings the matter to a close,” he is quoted as saying in an email press release.
“Thank you to Covington & Burling — our Supreme Court counsel in this matter — for their assistance and representation. Now the real work begins for the City, the airport, and all our residents of the East Shore and Morris Cove neighborhoods to collaborate on a plan that will benefit all. It is important that we work together and include our residents every step of the way.”
Paul Bass contributed to this report.
Thank you Supreme Court. Let's expand ASAP!!!