By Albert Amateau
Helicopters have been roaring in and out of the pad on the Hudson River at 30th St., flying sightseers over the harbor and well-heeled travelers to airports and regional destinations for the past 50 years, with the city’s blessing.
But the state legislation that nine years ago created the Hudson River Park set March 21, 2001, as the date for ending chopper operations at the 30th St. heliport — a provision that, like a few other park deadlines, has turned out to be a legal fiction.
Since then, the operator, Air Pegasus Heliport, has been operating on a month-to-month lease from the Hudson River Park Trust, the state/city agency building the 5-mile-long riverfront park between Chambers and 59th Sts.
Although popular with its customers (it has an average of more than 120 takeoffs and landings per day), the 30th St. heliport has been the target of park advocates who say the park is no place for the earsplitting racket of a helipad.
In April, Friends of Hudson River Park, a community-based civic group, sent a letter to Charles Dorkey III, chairperson of the Trust; Connie Fishman, the Trust’s president; and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, a member of the Trust board of directors, saying the heliport must go.
“The existing heliport at 30th St. and the Hudson River is illegal at that location and would be operating illegally wherever it might be located in Hudson River Park,” the Friends stated.
The letter, signed by Albert Butzel, president of the Friends, called on the Trust, “in accordance with its responsibility to enforce the Hudson River Park Act, [to] take immediate action to terminate the operation of the heliport at 30th St. and clear the site so that it can be used as park open space.”
The letter notes that the site is not one of the commercial nodes specified in the park act, and that park sections around the heliport are nearing completion.
“All one has to do is be in the park today to experience the horrendous noise and jet fumes of helicopters coming and going,” the letter said. Butzel’s letter concludes with the threat that the Friends “will reluctantly pursue such other remedies as are available to us and the thousands of other New Yorkers who are adversely impacted by the heliport operation.”
Friends of Hudson River Park went to court in defense of the Hudson River Park more than a year ago and won a court-approved agreement for the Department of Sanitation to remove by the year 2012 its current garage facilities from the Gansevoort Peninsula and from the 57th St. pier, which are also slated for park use.
Another assault on the 30th St. heliport was mounted last week with the filing of a federal lawsuit by New York Helicopter Charter Inc., a sightseeing service that formerly operated out of 30th St. as a tenant of Air Pegasus.
New York Helicopter and its owner, Michael Roth, named Air Pegasus Heliport and Hudson River Park Trust as defendants, contending that the sightseeing service was forced off 30th St. because of illegal and discriminatory fees demanded by Pegasus.
Roth, who still operates sightseeing flights out of the Wall St. heliport, wants the federal court to shut down 30th St., claiming that the Trust is illegally granting Pegasus a month-to-month permit as “a favorite son,” without public bidding, and in violation of the Hudson River Park Act. The suit also asks for monetary damages as a consequence of New York Helicopter’s being denied access to 30th St., and also to force the Trust to open the 30th St. lease to public bidding.
Pegasus, owned by Alvin Trenk and his daughter, Abigail Trenk, has been operating the 30th St. heliport, first under the Port Authority, then the New York State Department of Transportation and recently the Trust, “for almost 30 years without competitive bidding,” the suit says.
The lawsuit notes a 2005 Trust audit of Air Pegasus that found Pegasus owed the authority at least $615,947; but the Trust settled the debt for $462,387.
In a telephone interview on Wed., May 30, Roth acknowledged that if the remedy of closing down 30th St. is granted, he probably would not be able run his flights from that location.
“It’s not about the money,” he said. “I’m a New Yorker, and I don’t like to be pushed around by someone with political clout.”
Nevertheless, Mayor Bloomberg is in favor of heliports. In response to a question about the 30th St. heliport at a Thurs., May 31, news conference at the Gansevoort Peninsula, the mayor said, “The city needs heliports if we’re going to keep big business here. Companies have to be able to move their people in and out of the city.” He added that the city would ask the State Legislature to amend the park act to accept the 30th St. heliport at a later date. Currently, the city is asking the Legislature to amend the park act to allow a Sanitation Department marine transfer station for recyclables to be built on the Gansevoort Peninsula.
All three Manhattan heliports — the 30th St. facility administered by the Trust, the East River heliport at 34th St. administered by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, and the Wall St. heliport run by the Port Authority — are being audited by the New York State Comptroller’s Office, a state spokesperson said. The audits began last year, and the spokesperson would not estimate when they would be submitted to the agencies and subsequently to Governor Spitzer and the Legislature.
