Approve No-Parking Zone Near Montauk's Surf Lodge

In an effort to address a dangerous situation caused by patrons of the Surf Lodge parking along South Edgemere Street, and then walking alongside and sometimes in the road to and from the club, the East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to establish a no-parking zone in the area.

Parking will be banned on the west side of South Edgemere from just north of the club to just northwest of Elwell Street, closer to the downtown.

There is already a parking ban on the other side of the street.

While the parking ban will improve matters, said East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo in a statement read by Supervisor Larry Cantwell before the board vote last week, there are more issues to be addressed, including the problem of taxis that stop in the lanes of travel to pick up and discharge passengers.

"The business will need to come up with a plan for handling its patrons," such as opening its parking lot to bar and restaurant patrons in addition to hotel guests or providing off-site valet parking or shuttle bus service, the police chief said.

Representatives of the Montauk Fire District and Fire Department, who came in a group to the town board's hearing on the parking ban last week, underscored the immediacy of change.

"If we can't get our vehicles and our personnel to the scene," said Joe Dryer, the chairman of the Montauk Board of Fire Commissioners, "that person's not going to get to the hospital, or someone's house is going to burn down."

Michael Mirras, a 32-year fire department member, described a recent ambulance call, when he was delayed by Edgemere Street traffic in getting to the firehouse, and the ambulance was delayed in getting to residents who had called for help for a 1-year-old baby.

"So we can't wait," Mr. Dryer told the board. "We need an almost immediate solution to this. We need to get our people through now. Not only can't we get to the scene, someone's going to get run over."

With no sidewalks along Edgemere, and the road area narrowed by the cars that have been parking, large numbers of people end up walking distances from their cars to the Surf Lodge, which creates a traffic obstruction and worries drivers who have to avoid the pedestrians.

In addition to signs designating "no parking," the board should enact a "no-standing" rule to deal with the taxis, said Richard Schoen, another Montauk fire commissioner.

The fire and ambulance volunteers' comments drew applause from those in the Town Hall meeting room.

Laura Michaels, who heads Montauk's Ditch Plains Association, asked the board to monitor the effects of the parking ban. It could, she said, only push patrons to park along other streets, with the pedestrian-safety concerns to continue. Because residents along Edgemere might need streetside parking, she suggested the ban be for the summer season only. And, in light of a recent accident in the area, she suggested that signs outlawing U-turns be posted.

Another speaker questioned whether maximum occupancy limits were being observed by the club. In recent weeks, after some 300 Montauk residents flooded a town board meeting with their concerns about a host of matters related to the influx of club-goers and other tourists in the hamlet, town fire marshals have stepped up weekend inspections of the Surf Lodge and other venues, issuing summonses for overcrowding and requiring clubs to immediately rectify the situation, said Mr. Cantwell.