Zoe Berg

New state funds for upgrades to infrastructure at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, which would include noise mitigation, have renewed debates over the future of the city’s airport. 

Tweed received $11 million from a state legislative session on June 4. The funds mark the newest chapter in a strained relationship between the airport and residents in East Haven and New Haven. For years, neighbors have expressed concerns about airport noise, traffic, fumes and environmental impacts tied to the airport’s expansion. 

President Pro Tempore of the Connecticut Senate Martin Looney, a Democrat from New Haven who lives near Tweed and has previously been wary of the airport’s growth, helped secure the funding, according to reporting by the New Haven Register. 

Ten million dollars will go toward infrastructure improvements, while $1 million — drawn from the Connecticut Airport Authority’s jet fuel tax — will support noise mitigation in surrounding neighborhoods, Looney told the Register. The funding still requires approval by the State Bond Commission before disbursement, the Register reported in June.

How the airport will allocate these funds remains unclear. 

“We understand the process to refine its parameters is still underway, and we will continue to follow this closely and share updates with our community as more information becomes available,” Thomas Cavaliere, Tweed’s communications director, wrote to the News. 

The airport’s proposed expansion plan, announced in May 2021, is under environmental review due to its wetland location. The proposal includes an extended runway that will reach 6,575 feet, a new 84,000 square-foot terminal with four formal gates, an expanded parking lot for 4,000 vehicles and a revised access route via Proto Drive in East Haven. 

It is unclear whether the new funds will help support this expansion if approved.

East Haven and New Haven residents say they already feel the effects of the airport’s growth. 

Gloria Bellaccio, a Morris Cove resident of 16 years, described dramatic increases in flights since the pandemic. 

“We went from having no jets for a few years, to one jet maybe once a week, to forty-seven flights a day sometimes,” Bellaccio said. “If they have late arrivals, I am woken up at two in the morning.” 

Bellaccio added that fumes force her to cover her mouth on walks and that traffic on Burr Street has worsened. 

East Haven resident Petrina Yoxall voiced similar frustrations at a Sept. 17 airport authority meeting. 

“About two or three weeks ago, a plane sat there for 90 minutes running,” Yoxall said. “This is coming straight across our residential streets. There’s absolutely no buffers. There’s no trees blocking any of this. The odor is horrendous.”

In response, Cavaliere wrote to the News, “HVN manages a number of robust programs and initiatives to monitor, measure, and mitigate noise, as well as to address air quality.” 

Cavaliere pointed to Tweed’s key initiatives, including the Residential Sound Insulation Program, or RSIP, which, he wrote, has invested $12 million to date in soundproofing nearby households. Tweed has pledged to expand its noise monitoring program, with updated reports expected by October, he added. 

Cavaliare also emphasized Tweed’s recently launched Residential Indoor Air Program, which will offer high efficiency particulate air purifiers to 838 households, according to the agenda of the airport authority meeting. By mid-September, the airport had received around 100 applications, the document noted.

Connecticut Assistant Attorney General Leland Moore, a candidate for Ward 18 alder to represent Morris Cove, has centered his platform on airport-neighborhood relations. 

Tweed must “operate safely” and “address quality-of-life issues that affect the neighborhood,” Moore said. 

Moore wants to make sure public funds directed to Tweed are spent in the public interest.

“When you receive public funds, you need to be a good steward of those funds,” Moore said. “You need to be transparent about how you use them.”

Tweed was opened in 1931 as the New Haven Municipal Airport.