Hudson County will soon join Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne in following Kearny’s lead to move the current legal action against HHI Heliport from municipal court to New Jersey Superior Court, according to Hudson County Counsel Alberico De Pierro.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) began the discussion on the topic at Thursday’s board of commissioners meeting by requesting that they establish an internal committee on the non-essential helicopter dilemma in Kearny.
While Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) questioned if they already had one, O’Dea said they needed to meet regardless because the issue is intensifying – more than one year after the fatal helicopter crash in the Hudson River that reignited conversations around the impact of non-essential helicopter flights.
“If there is, I ask that we meet because the problem hasn’t gotten any better. And in my opinion, it’s as bad if not worse. I’ve seen advertisers … and they promote tourist trips from Kearny … that’s not what that’s supposed to be doing,” O’Dea explained.
The municipal court case against HHI Heliport, or Helo Holdings at 165 Western Road, has been adjourned repeatedly in Kearny, currently a zoning violation hearing.
However, county officials previously told HCV that the idea is to transfer the case to superior court with county legal assistance for more appropriate and immediate relief.
Following that, the county made clear its intention to jointly join the legal case with three other neighboring South Hudson locales.
However, that has yet to happen, prompting O’Dea to call for the county to step in already.
“I respect everything that the city and the mayor is doing there, but I think it comes a point that we should be in court because it’s a public nuisance,” O’Dea said.
“And somebody from Jersey City who is affected by it, I think every district and area in Jersey City is affected by it. We should be pursuing a public nuisance complaint against the company, against the operators, or whoever we need to pursue it against.”
According to De Pierro, County Executive Craig Guy has been spearheading litigation, alongside Kearny Mayor Carol Jean Doyle, that will soon be filed in Superior Court.
Kearny will be the lead municipality, and the county will join their petition with Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne. De Pierro added U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8) is also involved.
“I’ve been working with Kearny’s municipal council, municipal attorneys, myself, the Jersey City Law Department, the Bayonne Law Department, and the Hoboken Law Department,” De Pierro clarified.
“We are preparing to file action in superior court. Kearny will be taking the lead, and all of those municipalities and the county will be joining in said petition.”
O’Dea asked De Pierro for a written memo of where the litigation group is at this point and when they plan to file any action, to which De Pierro said the other municipalities will be joining in and filing briefs soon.
Currently, the involved stakeholders are talking about litigation strategy at the moment.
In addition, O’Dea wanted to know the position and grounds of the planned litigation, stating the “grounds that Kearny may have may be different than the grounds the cities that are affected by the traffic itself.”
According to De Pierro, Kearny is where the heliport is located and helicopters arrive and depart, thus that municipality controls the zoning and permit approvals.
However, O’Dea stipulated that the helicopters fly over Jersey City and Hoboken more than Kearny, and that those municipalities and the county may have different grounds in filing the legal action.
“None of those helicopters fly over where anybody lives in Kearny. Where they fly over is Jersey City and Hoboken,” he stated.
Doyle, who is also the secretary for the board, disputed that as “not correct,” but O’Dea said he once monitored the heliport for two hours and only saw flights take off east from Kearny towards New York.
“I’ve never seen them head west. I just want to make sure that everything’s covered, because like Kearny’s grounds could be different than the grounds of a city or Jersey City, whose grounds are the noise pollution, and the nuisance effect that it has, and impacts on the population,” he expressed.
“I just want to put on record that I want to make sure… that all potential avenues to sue under are covered.”
Commissioner Bob Baselice (D-8) told De Pierro to reach out and inform each counsel from the other Hudson County municipalities not involved in the lawsuit, noting that anybody along the Hudson River corridor is affected by the helicopter issue.
“When they go out to the Meadowlands to look at the stadium, they go over Secaucus. Make sure they’re aware of it,” Baselice said.
De Pierro indicated that wouldn’t be a problem, providing further details on what it currently happening.
“We’ve been working on litigation strategy. Once Kearny’s … municipal attorneys have drafted their pleading and before it’s filed, it will be shared with the litigation group,” he explained.
“Then, obviously each municipality and the county, meaning the county Law Department, will know what our course of action will be.”
De Pierro said there is no further information to provide at this moment in time, pending Kearny’s next move.
“We have to wait for the lead municipality and their attorneys to have the time to prepare their strategy, their arguments, their research,” De Pierro said.
“They’re working with several constituent members in gathering discovery. Once we have that, we will be able to now ascertain what our strategy is with the other municipalities.”
Baselice applauded the idea of expanding the litigation group to include interested North Hudson municipalities, as helicopters have been plaguing the Hudson River area and even over James J. Braddock Park.
“I know the effects and I have a lot of people emailing about the helicopters. I just want to make sure that they are all aware that this is happening. Just that way, everybody is aware and if they know, they can jump on,” he added.
At the conclusion of the conversation, Romano formed an internal committee on the topic including himself, O’Dea, and Commissioner Fanny Cedeno (D-6).
While activists and legislators alike have been looking to ban tourist helicopter operations in Hudson County and the Garden State for over a decade, the movement gained traction again after the fatal crash in the Hudson River in April of 2025.
The crash, which occurred near the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, claimed six lives after the New York Helicopter Tours – which has since ceased operations – aircraft started “falling apart” in midair and did a nosedive into the water below.
By May, Doyle and Guy had met with HHI Heliport’s CEO Jeff Hyman to discuss quality of life issues relating to the helicopter activity at the facility, after resident concerns flooded online on social media and in person at municipal government meetings.
After the meeting, in June, Hyman pledged to reduce helicopter flights working with Guy and the county while doing so.
In September, things came to a head when it became clear that non-essential helicopter traffic was not slowing down out of the facility and the aforementioned violation was issued, drawing praise from Guy and Menendez.
The violation notice says that a failure to comply with the cited zoning resolution could necessitate resubmitting an application for approval.
