Hudson County may join the ongoing legal battle against non-essential helicopter traffic out of HHI Heliport in Kearny, as the three South Hudson cities most impacted by the travel prepare to enter the fray.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
At yesterday’s Kearny Town Council meeting, Town Attorney James Bruno gave a brief update after reviewing the proposal to move the HHI Heliport case to superior court, indicating that the town had no plans to dismiss the case.
“Because it’s litigation, I can’t tell you too much, but we do have a municipal court process going on through our prosecutor’s office that continues,” Bruno said.
“That continues, because there’s been some misconception, some people talking that the town was abandoning our efforts and so on, but we’re not.”
The municipal court matter is still pending, Bruno confirmed, but the town is contemplating “a superior court action for injunctive relief.” However, he echoed what Doyle told HCV on Monday, that it’s “an expensive and extensive proposition.”
The case against the non-essential helicopter traffic from HHI Heliport at 165 Western Road currently revolves around a zoning violation in Kearny Municipal Court with a hearing still set for March 26th.
Bruno further emphasized that “proofs and facts” from the community to show the impacts of the helicopters will be essential to the case, especially since they have no expectations that HHI Heliport will quietly ride off into the sunset.
“We can’t tell you it’s going to stop the activity. We also can’t say that it’s going to stop all the helicopters. Obviously, we can only control what comes out of this heliport and what takes off in violation of zoning codes,” the lead counsel for the town added.
“They have the right to operate otherwise, and I’m sure they will… I don’t want anyone to have unrealistic expectations about what could happen or how fast it could happen, but we haven’t abandoned it as people thought we may have been doing.”
While the Kearny Town Council did not vote on the matter, some in attendance still thanked the governing body for not abandoning the case due to potentially high legal costs.
Hudson County Safe Skies Founding member Nick Wierda, offered help from advocates on this and other issues, urging for this to be a “shining example” of governments cooperating for the good of their constituents.
“It is not lost on me that this has an outsized effect on not you. On behalf of the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people this does affect more, I just want to thank you for engaging with this issue. This issue affects so many of us in very real and visceral ways every single day and has for many, many years now,” he declared.
Mayor Carol Jean Doyle concluded that she continues to read the emails of the many residents plagued by non-essential helicopters across Hudson County.
“We have been diligently working on it,” she noted.
According to Doyle, this has been going on a long time with Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) objecting to this via Hudson County Board of Commissioners resolution over a decade ago.
O’Dea told HCV in an interview that he is asking the county to follow Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne by joining the legal action once the matter makes it’s way to superior Court.
He also shared a change.org petition encouraging Kearny to enforce the zoning violation against HHI Heliport and asking for support from local leaders.
“16 years ago I sponsored a resolution opposing the Kearny heliport, and sadly all my fears on the safety issues and noise pollution have come true. We now need to go to court to stop this,” he explained.
County Executive Craig Guy said on Monday that superior court was the best outlet for the case to bring residents more immediate relief via the Chancery Division, and that the county would provide legal assistance once the transfer is complete, as HCV first reported.
