To Correct Parking Deficit

Time limits on parking in and around the municipal parking lot in Amagansett should be reduced as a short-term measure to alleviate the parking deficit in the hamlet, the new rules should be enforced aggressively, and, in the long term, the town should acquire more land for parking.  So said Tina Piette at an Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Monday.

Ms. Piette, who is on the subcommittee charged with making recommendations to the town board, said it had met with Supervisor Larry Cantwell and other town officials, including Alex Walter, Mr. Cantwell’s executive assistant, and Lt. John Claflin of the Police Department, and had decided that the hamlet would always face a parking deficit unless the town acquired more land.

In the absence of an acquisition, however, the parking shortage, which is particularly acute in summer, can be eased by reducing from one hour to 30 minutes the time limit on three or four spaces in front of the Amagansett Library, Mary’s Marvelous, and Amagansett Wine and Spirits, all on Main Street. Those spaces are adjacent to the municipal lot’s entrance and surrounded by handicapped spaces, which would be unaffected.

The lot accommodates approximately 155 vehicles, with a 24-hour limit on the three northernmost rows. The subcommittee recommended reducing the number of 24-hour spaces from 79 to approximately 53. The two-hour limit for the remainder of the lot would remain in place.

Given what Ms. Piette said was scant enforcement, the northernmost rows now effectively offer unlimited parking. “If the 24-hour rule was just enforced there would be a lot more turnover in the summer,” she said. Because an estimated 110 people work in the commercial district, however, “there might be a bit of a backlash.”

Ms. Piette suggested that parking be regulated from May 15 to Oct. 1 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but suggested that regulations could also be enforced year round. She said that better signs describing the regulations are necessary in the municipal lot. 

Parking at the town-owned spaces at the Long Island Rail Road station should be limited to 24 hours, she said. The subcommittee also suggested that spaces owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the row closest to the tracks — be designated for drop off and pickup only.

 The committee voted in favor of asking the town board to enact the subcommittee’s recommendations, combined with aggressive enforcement. “Those were the suggestions to get going on next summer to improve flow,” Ms. Piette said. “And of course, buying more property for parking should be on the town’s agenda.”