Story ID: 132YonkersAINJuly16EditedByAY_NM
Yonkers Helitour Base Debated
By: Mark Huber
Caption: One operator wants to move to avoid restrictions in New York City but is meeting resistance at its planned alternate location.
Word Count: 514
A plan by New York’s Helicopter Flight Services (HFS) to offer air tours from barges anchored between a Yonkers sewage treatment plant and a Domino sugar refinery on the east bank of the Hudson River is drawing a chilly reception from residents and local politicians. Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano (D) has counseled HFS that he doesn’t think a heliport is a good use for the proposed site, the city council is considering a ban, and some local residents were verbally abusive to HFS representatives at an informational meeting on the proposal in May.

HFS wants to relocate its air-tour operations to the site in response to operational caps imposed on all air-tour operators at New York City’s Wall Street heliport that will slash flights there by 50 percent by January 1 next year. That deal will last only two years, after which further flight cuts or even a total air-tour ban could be imposed on operations from that popular location. Last September, as the political climate for New York City’s air tour operators was rapidly deteriorating under a barrage of negative media stories about helicopter noise, HFS principal John Kjekstad formed Yonkers Heliport. HFS’s plan is to provide van transportation from the Ludlow Street Station to the new heliport and run three to five flights per hour with Bell 407s and Airbus H130s between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.

In a presentation to Yonkers’ Ludlow Park Association in late May, HFS executives outlined the company’s plan for the site, its operations and community relations. HFS pledged to work “in a collaborative partnership with the community” to minimize its operations’ impact and to fly only over the Hudson west of mid-river. It further pledged to donate $1 per passenger, up to $20,000 per year, to the association; work with the association and the county to modernize the water treatment plant; work with the sugar refinery to offer joint land waterfront access for public outdoor space; and make the heliport available for EMS, law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Yonkers city code currently permits heliports that satisfy certain conditions: approval of a special-use permit by the planning board and ratified by the city council after a public hearing. Other requirements are a good location to best serve present and potential helicopter traffic, minimum obstructions in the approach and departure path, minimum disturbances to the public from noise and dust and easy access to surface transportation. Rooftop helipads are prohibited. Additionally, Yonkers has a noise ordinance that a helicopter operator could find problematic. It defines a noise disturbance in part as: a sound-level reading taken at a residential property, arising from a commercial property, an industrial property, a public space or a public right-of-way, above 70 dBA during the time period commencing at 7 a.m. and ending at 10 p.m.; or a sound-level reading taken at a commercial or industrial property at any time, arising from any property source, above 70 dBA; or a sound plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from its source.