Large Aircraft Banned From Chatham Airport; Town Meeting Approves Bylaw By Narrow Margin

CHATHAM – If the Attorney General upholds a bylaw passed at Saturday’s annual town meeting, fewer large aircraft will be using Chatham Municipal Airport.

Voters approved a petition article banning aircraft with wingspans greater than 49 feet from the airport. The petition was aimed at prohibiting turboprop, jets and charter planes from taking off or landing at the airport, which airport critics say is unsafe for the larger aircraft.

The measure passed by a narrow 26-vote margin, 192-166, even though officials warned that the bylaw ran afoul of state and federal regulations and would likely be rejected by the Attorney General. A number of voters expressed concerns about legal fees the town would incur defending the bylaw

“We are voting not on the law,” said petition sponsor Gerry Stahl. “We are voting on a growing problem with our community.”

Airport critics have pushed limits on use of the George Ryder Road airport for several years, alleging that airport officials are trying to expand the facility and promote its use by the larger aircraft and charter flights. Last year, town meeting voted down a change to the airport’s approach map that critics said would have opened it up for use by larger aircraft. Airport officials, however, said that vote was a technicality, and that failure to replace an older approach map with the newer one in the town bylaws made no difference in the aircraft using the facility, since the Federal Aviation Administration guidance for Chatham uses the newer map.

A petition article in 2022 aimed at reducing the usable length of the runway, essentially prohibiting the larger aircraft, was defeated, 287-135.

Saturday’s vote came at the very end of the six-hour-plus town meeting. A total of 592 voters registered for the session, according to Town Clerk Julie Smith, but by the time the airport article came around, only 358 residents remained to vote on it.

Stahl said Chatham’s airport was designed for smaller, single-engine aircraft and is not safe for the larger turbojets to use. The number of flights by turbojets has steadily increased in recent years, he added.

“These planes should be using Hyannis airport, which is designed for them,” he said. Town officials have failed to address the “danger” to the town of the larger planes, as well as noise issues, and the petition article was a “compromise solution to the long conflict between airport development and neighborhood development,” he said.

“You own the airport,” resident Juris Ukstins said in urging voters to approve the bylaw. “Taxpayers have the right to manage the usage of their airport.” Town officials have used “scare tactics” in opposing efforts to limit the airport’s use, he said, including threats that the FAA would force the town to pay back millions in subsidies. But despite the failure of the updated approach map vote last year, “nothing happened,” he said. “The FAA said nothing, MassDOT said nothing, no grant money had to be repaid.”

Town Counsel Jay Talerman said the bylaw was inconsistent with state and federal jurisdiction over airport activity and is likely to be rejected by the Attorney General.

“How much is it going to cost us” to defend the bylaw, resident David Wilbur asked. Stahl said the language in the bylaw does not require that the town defend it, should it be rejected.

Airport critic Michael Tompsett said while the FAA controls air space, the town controls the property on the ground and can set rules based on safety.

In noting that the finance committee opposed the article, member John Pappalardo recalled when DC3 aircraft with 90-foot wingspans “without incident routinely flew in and out of Chatham Airport.”

Airport commission member Leo Eldredge said he sympathized with the concerns of residents but he said that the FAA looks at flight safety data when considering prohibiting aircraft from a facility.

“Turboprops have a flawless safety record here,” he said. “In my mind it’s a virtual certainty this will not be approved.”

Because the measure amended the town bylaws, only a majority vote was required for approval. The bylaw won’t go into effect until it is approved by the Attorney General, according to Talerman.

It wasn’t a good day for the airport. Earlier in the meeting, voters rejected the town’s share of airport facilities upgrades. The $59,175 would leverage more than $1 million in state and federal funds for replacement of field lighting, beacon and the windsock, apron maintenance and paving of a parking area. Airport Commission Chair Huntley Harrison said another funding source will have to be found for the town’s 5 percent matching share of the projects; the FAA pays 90 percent of the cost while the state covers 5 percent.