Legislative efforts in New York State that would have led to the closure of the West 30th Street Heliport in Manhattan have ended. Language that would have prohibited “any facility for motorized aircraft, including a heliport” has been removed from the legislation, thanks to a grassroots campaign led by Vertical Aviation International (VAI) that responded vigorously to a request to contact state legislators and express concern over the closure plans.
VAI members and others from industry partners such as the NBAA sent more than 96,000 emails to every member of both state houses, according to Josh Rousseau, VAI northeast U.S. regional representative. “They felt the heat,” he said.
The new bill, with the heliport provisions stripped out, does include language beneficial to the West 30th Street Heliport, requiring the creation of an advisory task force comprising city appointees, as well as industry and business representatives. The task force appointments are pending the legislation becoming law, which doesn’t happen until all assembly and senate negotiations over the bill are complete and they send it to the governor’s office for final approval or veto.
“The grassroots effort was incredibly effective,” Rousseau said. “There is so much more work to do, but we’re in a much better place than we were two-and-a-half weeks ago.”