VIDEO: Tweed New Haven Airport neighbors to get chance to weigh in on expansion plans

[00:00:00]Happening today, neighbors of Tweed Airport will get the chance to weigh in on a significant expansion plan.

[00:00:06]>> Tweed says the airport will be bigger and better, but a lot of people who live around the airport are pushing back.

[00:00:13]Your reporter Owen Kingsley is looking ahead to a large public meeting tonight that's surrounding all of this. Owen, what can you tell us?

[00:00:21]>> Well, if you live in Ward 18 here in New Haven, you're probably going to want to listen to this. Tonight is a significant public meeting. Airport officials, they're going to lay out all the latest in expansion plans that include more planes and more parking. But for a lot of people living in this area, what they hear, more noise, more traffic.

[00:00:38]Costing hundreds of millions of dollars, Tweed Airport has their eyes set on adding a new terminal, more parking areas, and an expanded runway to support larger planes coming from further away.

[00:00:51]The plan is also supposed to improve traffic congestion in the Morris Cove neighborhood. The massive project is still waiting for final zoning approval, but has been approved by New Haven, East Haven, and the Airport Authority. The people fighting back are the ones who have called this area home for years.

[00:01:07]Listening to the sounds of planes overhead, battling traffic congestion in this suburb, and fearful for what more planes and people would do to their neighborhood.

[00:01:17]Well, tonight is your opportunity to speak up. That public meeting starts at 6:00 over at Nathan Hale School. And yes, there'll be an opportunity for the public to ask airport officials questions about this expansion.

[00:01:30]Your reporter in New Haven, I'm Owen Kingsley, Channel 3 Eyewitness News.

[00:01:33]>> All right, Owen. Thank you.