Progress On Parking

The parking problem in East Hampton Village has taken a turn toward townwide solution.

So it seemed on Friday, when about 60 people showed up at a hearing on a controversial proposal to charge nonresidents $5 a day to park in the long-term lot off Lumber Lane.

Though several speakers objected, saying the hearing should be on a Saturday for those who work, it will continue next Thursday at 10 a.m.

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said he "welcomed" the comments of the more than a dozen speakers, including two Town Board members, on Friday. Most opposed the plan.

Yearly Rate

Afterward, the board decided to offer nonvillagers an annual parking permit - probably for $250. That amount, it was noted, was considerably less than what it would cost to park four or five days each week at the daily rate.

In the spirit of accommodation, the Mayor told The Star this week, the village also will add 10 free, seven-day parking spaces for railroad patrons, where 25 now exist, just west of the Race Lane-Railroad Avenue intersection - spaces, he said, which so far have been "underutilized."

As to what the Mayor called the "bigger picture," he promised to put Councilman Thomas Knobel, who spoke Friday, and his colleagues "on the hot seat."

A Town Problem

"I suggest that the Town Board recognize the deficiency of parking facilities in the town and the village. We're reaching out," the Mayor said, "and asking for relief."

"It is a town problem," Councilman Knobel acknowledged, "not of your making - and you have paid for it." Over a decade's time, the village has invested roughly $2 million in parking lot construction and traffic improvements around the station.

Work Together

Noting that she had "a lot of calls" on the issue, another Town Board member, Nancy McCaffrey, said the Village Board's proposal to charge the nonresident fee should be "re thought."

"We have a long tradition in East Hampton Village to work with the town. We wouldn't want them pitted against each other," she said.

"Why not start with something at the airport?" asked Elbert Edwards, a board member. "We're saturated."

Eyes On The Airport

A town study now under way has suggested East Hampton Town Airport as a potential transportation hub incorporating train and bus stops and extensive free parking facilities. A similar plan was suggested in a report to former Governor Cuomo in 1994 by the East End Economic and Environmental Task Force of Long Island, headed by Thomas Twomey, an East Hampton attorney.

Mr. Knobel garnered audience applause when he agreed that the Town Board should "look at the airport again." He added, though, that as many as two to three years would be "enormously fast" to implement such a plan.

Villagers' Support

"We believe the Village Board has taken an appropriate first step to relieve our congestion," said Andrew Goldstein, representing nearly 500 members, collectively, of the East Hampton Village Preservation Society and the Circle Association.

Mr. Goldstein said the town's upzoning proposal could result in the loss of commercially zoned land in East Hampton and Wainscott which "if properly developed could be the site of alternative commercial and transportation centers."

He added that town residents "should be addressing the Town Board" rather than the Village Board.

Free Ride?

"We're not [doing this] to try to raise money," said Mr. Edwards. "We want this to be a deterrent. You've had a wonderful time at the village's expense," he added, addressing out-of-villagers who complained about proposed fees.

The village claims that nonresidents who use the railroad leave their cars in the long-term lot for weeks at a time, preventing its use by business owners in the "core commercial" area, employees, and those using Herrick Park. The East Hampton station, board members said, has become the "hub for the town."

But William Ritter, a member of the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, said, "I think you're going to hurt the merchants."

Merchants' Role

"The merchants are part of the problem," countered the Mayor. "Mutual cooperation" - getting employees to park in a long-term lot - "has been lacking." He told of repeated meetings with "the A&P hierarchy," who acknowledged that "20 or more employee cars" are parked in their own lot. "They only want to walk eight feet," he said.

"I've received 100 calls from town residents saying the village's stores will be boycotted if this is done," said Marina Van, the executive director of the East Hampton Chamber. "I don't think it's fair to say you're doing this for local businesses. Will the Village Board be responsible for the stores' closing and for the [subsequent] unemployment?" she asked.

Ms. Van continued, "Mr. Edwards, it sounds like you don't want anyone in the Village of East Hampton."

"Park in a dark airport hub?" she asked. "Doesn't anyone care about people anymore?"

Not Discretionary

Sherry Wolfe, the director of the East Hampton Business Alliance, had a different viewpoint. "The future of the town is not in the village," she wrote in a letter to the Village Board, going on to say that the Town Board has to "grapple and take hold once and for all."

Several speakers, mostly from Springs, disagreed that parking already was a problem, noting that both lots north of the village generally had free spaces. Joel Lefkowitz of Landfall Road, in Northwest, who travels to New York City to work about 75 days a year, agreed, saying the board's approach was to "reduce demand by charging money."

The problem, he said, was that parking there was "not a discretionary use. We use it to do our jobs." The proposal, he added, "seems unneighborly."

Support For The Board

"I feel cheated and defrauded," said Sheldon Tashman of Rutland Road, Springs. "I think the Mayor and the two [Trustees] have been closed-minded" about the fee propsal, he went on.

Support for the board came from Joan Osborne, a Main Street resident, who noted that the Hampton Jitney makes 167 weekly trips to East Hampton - during the winter - and "it's hard for riders to park."

"The town generally does not address village problems," she said, adding that some 88,000 more residents are anticipated townwide within the foreseeable future.

Jitney View

Tom Neely, a vice president of the Hampton Jitney, saw "no simple answer to the entire transportation issue on the South Fork. This situation is occurring from Westhampton to Montauk in every hamlet," he said.

At the Omni, the Jitney building in Southampton, parking fees were instituted a year ago for Jitney passengers who leave their cars in the lot there.

"It's disappointing," Mr. Neely added, "that we haven't been asked to participate in the discussion about the airport." After all, he said, "we now carry twice as many people to and from the South Fork as the train."