The East Hampton Village Board intends to extend the hours in which parking at two of its beaches is limited to residents and nonresidents who buy a beach parking permit.
At present, parking at the village’s five ocean beaches is limited to permit holders from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. from May 15 through Sept. 15. Mayor Jerry Larsen told his colleagues at the village board’s meeting on Friday that a resident had suggested extending that time at beaches with fewer parking spaces.
The comment, the mayor said, was that “people spend a lot of money to buy our beach permits, as we all know. Then, they want to go and use it at 5 p.m. and they go to one of our smaller beaches” — Egypt Beach and Wiborg’s Beach, where fewer parking spaces exist than at Main, Two Mile Hollow, and Georgica Beaches — “and there’s no parking because at 5 we stop enforcing” and non-permit holders “can park wherever they want.” The suggestion, he said, is to keep parking enforcement in effect until 8 p.m. at the smaller beaches “to allow people who have the permits to get there and use the beaches.”
Permit holders, the mayor said, “want to come down and set up something for the evening and they can’t get even close because there’s no parking. . . . It’s just a thought. I kind of like the idea.”
Carrie Doyle and Sandra Melendez agreed with the suggestion. Christopher Minardi, the deputy mayor, said, though he had yet to give much thought to the issue, “I seem to sometimes have a problem earlier rather than later,” but “I think any village resident would be happy with this because it’s more parking for them.”
Mr. Minardi said the parking congestion he has observed happens between 8 and 9 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. “because that’s on the edges of our ticketing and our permits, and there’s sometimes a lot of things going on at the beach, whether it be junior lifeguards or events or just a busy morning. But I support the idea of expanding the time slightly. It gives people that pay and residents a little bit more peace of mind. Our beaches are beautiful, we put a lot of energy into them, and I think it’s working because they’re busier.”
The village could extend the parking restriction at the two beaches next summer on a trial basis, the mayor said. “We don’t allow any permitted parties at Egypt because it’s too small, and we limit what we do at Wiborg’s. So I think it might work.”
“I wouldn’t be opposed to entertaining Main and Georgica,” for extended parking for permit holders, Mr. Minardi said, “because those are the beaches that I normally go to and I do believe that there’s parking issues in the morning and in the immediate evening. . . . If people like it they’ll let us know, and if they don’t like it, I’m sure they’ll let us know.”
The mayor relayed another suggestion to the board, this one related to Lot 1 at Main Beach. The village code stipulates that Lot 1 is available to permit holders who rent lockers, and other resident-permitted vehicles may not park there until 1 p.m. (Lot 2 is available for all permitted vehicles.) “The recommendation I received was to move it to noon because they didn’t think it was fair that we wait until 1, holding those spots.” The previous board had moved the time in question from 2 to 1 p.m., he said, “and now we have an idea to move it to 12.”
He asked for Mr. Minardi’s opinion. “I would say that there probably is room at noon,” the deputy mayor said. “I’d like to just have it be locker holders only; however, that might not be the most popular decision. But I don’t think there’s a difference between 12 and 1.”
“We can try that for next summer too, and see how that goes,” the mayor said.
Also at the meeting, the mayor said that when he is in public, he is often asked when the village will hold another block party on Newtown Lane, as it did last autumn. With that in mind, he announced plans for another one on Sept. 20.
The street will be closed to vehicular traffic at 3 p.m. “We’ll have entertainment, music, the restaurants will be able to serve their food on the streets,” he said. “So bring your kids out” to what he said will be “a very family-fun event.”
