Queens Advocates Sue Federal Government Over LaGuardia AirTrain

EAST ELMHURST, QUEENS — A group of environmental advocates and northwest Queens residents petitioned appeals judges to reconsider a controversial LaGuardia Airport AirTrain plan, which they say the Port Authority and the federal government unlawfully approved.

The suit, filed with the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, claims that the Federal Aviation Administration — or the FAA — illegally gave the $2.05 billion plan the go-ahead without considering alternative proposals, including options which wouldn’t require parkland construction.

“The laws that were violated are there to ensure that communities and the environment are not harmed by decisions without a careful consideration of alternatives,” said Mike Dulong, senior attorney for Riverkeeper, an environmental group that filed the suit alongside Guardians of Flushing Bay, and the Ditmars Block Association. “People have a right to enjoy the waterfront,” he said.

The plan in question, which was first introduced by former governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015, would link LaGuardia Airport with a 7- and LIRR-train station at Willets Point.

Last November, the FAA concluded that the only "feasible" alternative to Cuomo's AirTrain plan was to do nothing at all — despite dozens of proposed project alternatives, including a subway extension or dedicated bus line to the airport. The following July, the federal agency approved the project.

The suit alleges that the FAA ruled out 45 alternative AirTrain plans based on criteria specifically constructed to exclude every option except for Cuomo’s, which violates the National Environmental Policy Act.

“The public simply has no way to determine whether the AirTrain is in the best interests of the region with the least impact on local communities and the environment,” says the suit, which asks the panel of judges to make the FAA redo its original project evaluations.

Port Authority staffers leveled a similar critique against their own agency in August, claiming that Cuomo might have exerted “undue influence” in order to get the multi-billion-dollar AirTrain plan approved.

The staffers called on Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton — himself a Cuomo appointee, and one of the project's most staunch supporters — to look into whether or not Cuomo manipulated the agency’s federally-mandated Environmental Impact Statement process. To date Cotton has not publicly responded.

The suit also claims that the FAA’s evaluation process and ultimate approval of the AirTrain plan doesn’t meet federal standards set under the Department of Transportation Act of 1966, which requires parkland to only be condemned if there aren’t alternative options.

The current AirTrain plan would limit East Elmhurst residents’ access to a 2,100-foot stretch of waterfront along Flushing Bay, unlike alternative proposals which wouldn’t cut off the waterfront, petitioners say.

They also point out that the construction would harm a historically Black, low-income community.

“This area of East Elmhurst has been underserved and environmental racism has almost never been addressed,” said Frank Taylor, President of the Ditmars Boulevard Block Association, noting that area residents disproportionately suffer from asthma, cancer, and poor air and noise quality. “We are proud to have partners that will stand with us to fight these injustices,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised a similar critique last November after the FAA ruled out every project proposal except for Cuomos. She called on the agency to explain why they eliminated alternative plans that would extend existing transportation options to the airport.

"This decision will have a lasting impact on thousands of people in our community," Ocasio-Cortez said at the time. "It's imperative that we understand why further investment and improvement of other transit options have been ruled out."

Transit experts have routinely pushed back against the project, too, arguing that Cuomo’s plan would increase travel time and isn’t worth the hefty price tag.

Most recently, an advocacy group found that the planned AirTrain would be the most expensive transit project per ride in the world — dethroning the much-maligned, extremely costly Second Avenue subway.

A Port Authority spokesman, however, told AMNY that he believes the court will uphold the FAA’s decision.

“The Biden Administration’s transportation experts green-lighted the badly-overdue LaGuardia AirTrain after reviewing more than 25,000 pages of studies and other materials, and analyzing more than 40 alternatives,” Thomas Topousis said in a statement. “We are confident that the panel of federal judges who will now independently review this matter will affirm that the AirTrain is now ready to be built.”