April 15, 2008 - The Greenwich Time
By Hoa Nguyen
Invoking their success at halting plans to build a huge liquefied natural gas terminal on Long Island Sound, officials last night pledged to work toward the same outcome in their opposition to a Federal Aviation Administration airspace redesign project.
"In a way this fight is very similar to Broadwater," Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said last night. "It looks like little guys against the big guys, after all we're against the feds. But more importantly, the arguments are very similar. First of all there are alternatives to this flight plan. Yes, we may need a different plan than the one we have now but not this one because there are better alternatives."
The Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning group, made up of officials from Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Danbury and other municipalities, held a meeting last night at the Greenwich Town Hall where congressional, state and local officials rallied each other and their citizens behind opposing the FAA plan.
The agency adopted a plan last year to cut down on flight delays by shifting aircraft arrivals toward Westchester and Fairfield counties. The alliance, with support from officials at the national, state and local levels, filed a lawsuit against the FAA, arguing that the redesign did not take into adequately account for noise environmental and safety impacts.
"This is a knock-down, drag out fight," U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said last night. "There's nothing pretty about this."
The FAA declined an invitation to attend last night's meeting. That left officials to detail their grievances about the agency, such as saying that the FAA has given elected officials limited information on current conditions and how the agency came up with its redesign.
Judy Neville, the former New Canaan first selectman and chief operating officer of the alliance, said that after a year of pressing for information, the alliance recently obtained data that showed that about 500 to 600 flights arrive into LaGuardia today and about 50 to 75 percent would be diverted under the plan. That means there would be about 300 to 400 additional flights.
"All of this information has been opaque, none of it is transparent," she said.
In addition to Shays, there were representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman who read letters pledging support for the alliance's plight. Officials from state government and local municipalities also got a chance to chime in, encouraging each other to band together.
quot;I do feel comfortable that we can sink this terrible plan," state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk said. "If we all work together, victory will be ours."
Shays proposed that residents be "deputized" to help in the fight by keeping records of when planes fly lower than they should so that the FAA could be pressed for answers.
"We're going to try and see who are the good players and bad players," he said.
While the number of elected officials and media outlets attending last night's meeting were numerous, only a little more than half of the about 100 people gathered appeared to be residents, which raises the question of whether enough people know about the redesign, said Arnold Gordon, a Greenwich resident.
"Other than an article here or there in the local newspaper, I don't think the general public really appreciates what is going on," he told officials.
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