PASCACK VALLEY—Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo said that the Pascack Valley Mayors Association would devise a new plan at its Nov. 9 meeting in its fight against noise pollution from private jets that overfly the Pascack Valley on their way into Teterboro Airport.
At the Oct. 26 meeting of Teterboro Aircraft Noise Abatement Advisory Committee, or TANAAC, Rendo said he and other local mayors were told that they would not be allowed a seat on the TANAAC board to represent their towns over air traffic volume and noise concerns.
The mayors had been pressing for months to be included on the TANAAC board and hoped to be admitted so that their voices — and the complaints of tens of thousands of potentially affected residents — could be represented to the airport owners, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.\
TANAAC is an advisory committee open to local officials representing towns within approximately 5 miles of Teterboro Airport. It includes officials from Bogota, Carlstadt, Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights, Little Ferry, Maywood, Moonachie, Ridgefield Park, Rochelle Park, Rutherford, South Hackensack, Secaucus, Teaneck, Teterboro and Wood-Ridge.
“This issue is not going away for us. We have residents in town that are intent on donating money to retain an attorney to see what can be done,” said Rendo on Oct. 31. “They [the Port Authority] have to be willing to come to some type of compromise. It’s not too much to want to enjoy your backyard on the weekends,” said the mayor, noting the constant drone of private jets likely lowers property values.
Rendo said that the mayors association will “look at what avenues we have for relief” such as possibly hiring an aviation expert to look at the airport’s landing flight patterns, hiring a lawyer to bring a court case, or holding a demonstration at a public venue or meeting to raise awareness.
“We’re at the mercy of the information they’re [TANAAC] giving us. And to not let us have a voice when our residents are complaining daily about the noise…this is a quality of life issue,” said Rendo. He said the mayors will consider next steps in their fight against private jet volume and noise when they meet Nov. 9. He said a letter to the airport demanding action on an alternate landing flight route was only one option open to the group.
Rendo said they were told that the TANAAC members opposed their membership because if they opened it up to one representative from their mayors’ association, that would set a precedent and they would then have to let in other towns/mayors who wanted to join.
Rendo said they only wanted to have one person on TANAAC to represent the Pascack Valley. “We’re getting the brunt of it, with the jets often 2,000 feet or lower over us.” He noted that a graphic shown by the committee showed a convergence of private jet traffic over Woodcliff Lake especially, as well as other towns.
He said though pilots were using a new landing pattern route over Route. 17, most pilots preferred the long-established landing route that traversed Emerson, Montvale, Park Ridge, Hillsdale, Washington Township, Westwood, and River Vale.
A chart presented at the July TANAAC meeting showed noise complaints lodged over a six-month period from January to June 2022 ranged from a high of 7,343 complaints from 40 complainants in the Township of Washington to a low of 33 complaints from 11 individuals in Montvale.
Hillsdale Mayor John Ruocco emailed residents advance notice of the TANAAC October meeting and an online log-in to attend. He questioned the committee’s decision to exclude a representative from the mayors’ association. The association includes all eight Pascack Valley towns, plus Old Tappan and Oradell.
“Their reasoning was that if they did it for us, they would have to do it for other mayors. I think that’s not a reasonable position, given that the skies above the towns in the Pascack Valley are where most of the routes converge during the approach to the airport, and on that basis alone a case can be made for allowing the PVMA a representative on the TANAAC,” Ruocco told Pascack Press.
Ruocco added, “The other development of note was that they put up a slide that showed greater use of the Alternate Route 17 approach. In the third quarter, it was used by 38% of the incoming night flights, which was considerably more than the previous quarter. Use of the Alt Route 17 approach during the day increased marginally, but is still only used by 4% of the incoming flights.”
The FAA established the alternate route in late 2020 in response to noise complaints from many communities, including Hackensack and Maywood, which lie closest to the airport’s landing field, Runway 19, that is used by most incoming private aircraft. Private jets flying over the Pascack Valley towns are generally heading for Runway 19.
At TANAAC’s July meeting, Rendo said that jet planes used his home as “ground zero” for turning over the reservoir and towards a Teterboro landing, according to the meeting minutes posted online. He questioned then why pilots were not using the Route 17 Alternate Approach landing route and asked for relief for residents on the weekends. He also asked for data on the number of flights on weekdays versus weekends heading into Teterboro Airport using Runway 19.
James Schultz, FAA manager for the New York district, explained that “traffic density on the weekends was still busy enough to prevent air traffic control from having the ability to do mixed approaches into Teterboro even on the weekends. They are looking at options,” according to the July minutes.
At the July meeting, a discussion ensued over a possible relocation of a portable noise monitor scheduled for Woodcliff Lake. Officials with TANAAC were leaning toward the Borough Hall while other local officials pushed for a site closer to the municipal pool, where more private jet traffic is sighted on a daily basis.
A location without ambient noise and a readily available power source was highly prized by TANAAC officials.
Each of the 15 communities on TANAAC is represented by the mayor or a duly appointed alternate.
In addition, the Bergen county executive and Board of Commissioners’ chairman, a member of Congress for the Ninth District, state assembly members and state senators of the 36th and 38th districts are represented by themselves or a duly appointed alternate.
According to its Port Authority of New York and New Jersey website, TANAAC was established on Feb. 26, 1987.
“The main purpose of the committee was to establish a meaningful dialogue between the airport community and the residential communities. The primary goal of the committee is to work collaboratively with the airport management and Federal Aviation Administration in an effort to enhance the quality of life of the residents of local communities while ensuring the continued efficient operation of the airport,” the website states.
“TANAAC is comprised of the locally elected officials or their duly appointed alternates, and members of the aviation community,” it adds.