PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — WPTV is working to get answers for thousands of Palm Beach County residents who continue living under temporary flight patterns tied to security restrictions around Mar-a-Lago.
Now, local leaders are pushing back against a proposal that could make those changes permanent.
WATCH BELOW: Residents urged to weigh in on possible permanent Mar-a-Lago flight restrictions
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration opened a formal rulemaking process that could permanently alter how aircraft arrive and depart from Palm Beach International Airport. The public has until Oct. 2 to comment on the proposal.
Now, elected state officials, Palm Beach County leaders and representatives with the Town of Palm Beach are urging the FAA to slow down.
"Listen to the people. And do not just really do not rush to make these restrictions permanent," said U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel during a news conference Wednesday.
Frankel said the current flight path was created years ago following environmental and safety reviews and was designed to affect as few residents as possible.
"It was back then about 2,200 homes and about 5,000 residents," Frankel said.
She said the Secret Service requested a one-mile restriction around Mar-a-Lago from the ground up to 1,000 feet in September 2025. While the FAA accepted the one-mile radius, Frankel said the resulting restrictions now affect far more residents than before.
"So now instead of, you know, a small number of homes being affected, we have over 11,000 homes and over 21,000 residents as well as the schools and businesses," she said.
Frankel described the quality-of-life concerns many residents have raised.
"The planes are overhead as much as every 90 seconds," she said. "Imagine trying to sleep through that, having a conversation in your backyard that's impossible or being in a classroom with the kids trying to learn."
Calls for more public input
One of the main concerns local leaders raised is the short public comment period.
Frankel said her office formally requested a 60-day extension.
"We're requesting an extension of the period of time for comment," she said. "A lot of our citizens are still out of town."
Her message to the FAA was simple.
"Slow down," Frankel said. "We don't see any reason to make these flight restrictions permanent. It's unnecessary."
Palm Beach County Commissioner Greg Weiss echoed that concern.
"I've written on behalf of our constituents asking for an additional 30 or 60 days for the comment period because as was mentioned, people are out of town," Weiss said. "They just found out about it and to give them time to gather the information that they need to put together to address this."
Officials say many residents are only now learning about the FAA proposal.
"If you're a resident like me and you're affected, I do encourage you with this window of time that we have to lodge your complaint with the FAA," said West Palm Beach resident Rafael Clemente. "We have a narrow window of time, and this is a critical opportunity for us to establish our position."
Clemente, who lives in the Flamingo Park neighborhood, said the issue extends beyond noise complaints.
"This is a really important issue that's truly affecting our quality of life, our property values," he said.
"My family and I, like thousands of others, bought a home outside of the flight path."
Public comment can be submitted here.
Questions over flight path decisions
Officials are also questioning why the FAA set a 2,000-foot minimum altitude when they say the Secret Service requested 1,000 feet.
"That needs to be addressed. We also would like them to look at what other opportunities there might be, how they might be able to change, even with the rules in place, where those flights go, whether they can change some of the noise abatement rules that will provide better noise abatement for our residents," Weiss said.
According to Frankel and Weiss, that change may be significant.
"If it was at 1,000 feet, most of the flights would be able to fly under their normal flight path," Weiss said.
Frankel argued that alternative approaches deserve further review.
"There are a lot of questions that deserve to be answered," she said. "FAA and Secret Service should be here on the ground and talk to our people."
She also criticized the agencies for declining requests to meet with local airport officials and residents.
"I have met a number of times with the Secret Service and I have talked with folks in the FAA and have requested that they come here and talk to the people and hear what the people have to say, and they have refused to do that," Frankel said.
Later, she added: "They're pretty much blowing off the public right now."
Local governments want flexibility
Town of Palm Beach Mayor Danielle Moore said local governments understand the need to protect the president but want any long-term policy to be flexible enough to change when circumstances change.
"We know that protecting the President of the United States is the number one goal," Moore said. "But times change, and when those times do change, we need to have the flexibility that the quality of life on the island reverts to the way it was prior to the president taking office in his second term."
Moore said the proposal deserves additional review.
"This whole proposal requires new scrutiny," she said. "If this is the government of the people for the people, they need to listen to the people who are actually living with this restriction."
Weiss agreed, saying any permanent rule should include a way to reverse the changes if security concerns no longer exist.
"If the president doesn't live there, Donald Trump doesn't live at Mar-a-Lago anymore, we should be able to go right back to the original flight path," Weiss said.
Ongoing legal challenge
The debate also comes as local governments continue their legal challenge against the FAA.
Weiss said Palm Beach County, the Town of Palm Beach and the City of West Palm Beach are currently involved in litigation against the agency.
https://www.wptv.com/news/palm-beach-county/region-c-palm-beach-county/faa-flight-restrictions-around-mar-a-lago-spark-lawsuit-resident-frustration
"We are challenging the FAA," Weiss said. "We're asking them, you know, to follow their own procedures that would have been required before they put in these flight restrictions."
Frankel also pointed to the FAA's own guidance.
"The FAA says that restrictions on airspace can be highly controversial and potentially disruptive and therefore require a strong justification, and the restrictions must be limited," she said. "And so we want them to live up to those words."
Despite concerns from some residents that the restrictions could ultimately become permanent regardless of public opposition, officials vowed to continue fighting the proposal.
"We are going to be fighting this whether they do this or not," Frankel said. "This is going to be a fight until this thing is correct."
"We want the president to be safe, but we want circumstances that allow for both, and we think both can occur."
Efforts Unanswered
This isn't the first time local leaders have pushed for changes to the flight restrictions.
Over the summer, Palm Beach County leaders urged federal officials to lift the restrictions when President Donald Trump was not staying at Mar-a-Lago. Those requests were ultimately not granted, and the flight patterns remained in place even while the president was out of town.
Meanwhile, residents and members of the Citizens Committee on Airport Noise have continued working with Palm Beach International Airport officials to better document the impact. The committee has been involved in efforts to install noise monitors and collect data on how loud aircraft are over neighborhoods affected by the rerouted flight paths.
But airport officials told the committee the data would only be used to gather enough verified noise data to present to the FAA and the Secret Service, but it doesn't require them to make changes.
"Are there any laws or regulations that would make the FAA have to comply to these requests?" asked WPTV's Joel Lopez during Wednesday's meeting.
"I was able to get into a budget bill, a requirement that the FAA talk to our airport folks. That bill is still pending, we'll get it passed... I don't know whether there will be time," Frankel responded.
WPTV reached out to the FAA about the proposed permanent rule. In a statement, the agency said:
"At the request of the U.S. Secret Service in the interest of national security, the FAA is proposing Special Air Traffic Rules for the airspace near Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT).
The Notice of Proposed Rule Making would restrict aircraft operations within the DJT Special Flight Rules Area, allowing flights only if specific safety and operational conditions are met."
A formal FAA rulemaking process is now underway and open for public comment.
Residents who want to weigh in on the proposed changes have until Oct. 2 to submit comments through the Federal Register.
Additional information about the proposal and instructions for submitting comments can be found on the Federal Register website.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
