The legal case to halt non-essential helicopter traffic over Jersey City and Hoboken skies could move from Kearny Municipal Court to Hudson County Superior Court soon, according to Hudson County Executive Craig Guy.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
“Until we can get this to the Chancery Division, where we can oppose or the judge can review it and make a legal determination, we have to advocate as strong as we can with our legal team to help this problem,” Guy told HCV.
Until that happens, the county wants to provide assistance in the form of legal guidance in the municipal case against Helo Holdings, better known as HHI Heliport, at 165 Western Road in Kearny.
“Once that’s done, we are going to continue to work with them. We’re going to caucus with them on legal strategy. I think that for the county executive, that’s really where the difference can be made,” noted Joe Waks, an aide to Guy in his office.
According to Waks, it will be beneficial if the matter heads to the Chancery Division, since that court deal less with monetary issues and more so with other forms of relief more relevant to the case at hand.
“Then they would craft some kind of solution to the problem, whether it’s some kind of compromise or whatever that may be,” Waks added.
“The county executive has been with these people from day one and has pledged all of our legal might and all the powers that we have here in the county to work with these folks.”
Currently, the matter is in Kearny municipal court in the form of a zoning violation issued by the town.
While a hearing was set for last month, a judge adjourned the matter for about a month so the parties could try to settle the matter outside of court, as HCV first reported.
This was the second postponement of this case in municipal court, with the first hearing initially set for December of last year.
As of today, the matter is still listed in municipal court, with the municipal court confirming over the phone that the next hearing is set for March 26th at 10 a.m. via Zoom, though that date and venue now appear to be in jeopardy.
Guy further stated that he communicates with helicopter advocates frequently, but is reduced to simply listening in this situation considering the layers of bureaucracy involved.
He believes that taking the case outside of Kearny Municipal Court will yield faster relief given the nature of the court, having met recently with county counsel, helicopter advocates, and their legal representation to plan how they can assist them after the transfer to superior court.
According to Waks, an application will be made by the town before that next scheduled hearing later this month. He highlighted how the process has been a crawl since the initial zoning violation was issued by Kearny in September.
He continued that this strategy will also give advocates a horse in the legal race, such as members of the Safe Skies Coalition who are part of non-profit Stop The Chop NY NJ dedicated to eliminating non-essential helicopter traffic.
He noted these activists are concentrated in Jersey City and Hoboken, while Kearny residents are not impacted as much since the heliport is surrounded by industrial uses.
Currently, in municipal court, their voices are sidelined given the fact it is a zoning violation, Waks added.
“It’s a weird situation because the municipality wrote the ticket, but they’re Kearny. It’s not really affecting the people in Kearny. It’s affecting the people in Jersey City and Hoboken, and to an extent, Bayonne.”
Guy concluded that this is a particular issue of interest by his administration. He said that helicopter noise intrudes on residents’ quality of life, day and night, no matter where they go.
“We are passionate about this: If you’re out there during the course of a day like today, a nice day early in the morning or so, you’ll catch them before the sun goes down,” he expressed.
“It’s nonstop. You can’t go into a bank and somebody doesn’t say, ‘Hey, look at the helicopter.’ You can’t go into a coffee shop. ‘Oh geez, look at the helicopter.’”
In a phone interview with HCV, Kearny Mayor Carol Jean Doyle said that the decision to move the case to superior court is still under review by town counsel.
She expressed that council members are concerned about the expenses considering “it doesn’t directly affect Kearny residents.”
“Their concern is, why are we putting ourselves out there financially when, in fact, everybody is struggling throughout the county with their budgets. That was the feedback I got.”
According to Doyle, advocates and activists are planning to attend the Town Council meeting tomorrow night to make their case in hopes of swaying the council.
“We understand the quality of life issue that’s facing the residents in the Heights and also Hoboken,” the mayor noted.
“But at the same time, why are we paying for it? That’s the question I’m getting asked. Why are we getting involved? Although I know the heliport’s in south Kearny, I do realize that, but the fight isn’t Kearny’s. The fight is Hoboken’s and Jersey City. It’s a financial thing.”
She added that the town expects to have “a better feel for it” once the legal review is completed by counsel.
While activists and legislators alike have been looking to ban tourist helicopter operations in Hudson County for over a decade, the movement sprung to life again after a fatal crash in the Hudson River last April.
Doyle and Guy had met with HHI Heliport’s CEO Jeff Hyman in May after resident concerns flooded online on social media and in person at municipal government meetings, and afterwards Hyman pledged to reduce helicopter flights.
By 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, stating that a failure to comply with the cited zoning resolution could necessitate resubmitting an application for approval.
