Eye Is on Nightlife In Motel Proposal

To what degree restaurants and bars are an essential part of hotels, motels, and the like will be considered this evening at East Hampton Town Hall. The town board has been working on a new set of rules intended to tighten the process by which they could be added to existing facilities.

This comes after several years of expansions of once-unassuming places of summer accommodation into what amount to regional headaches. Notably, in Montauk these include the Beach House, Solé East, and Ruschmeyer’s. Each has been a source of noise, traffic, litter, and other complaints from neighbors.

The proposed rules would prohibit the addition of bars and restaurants to hotels and motels that are allowed in residentially zoned areas because they pre-exist zoning, and would require more stringent review for such additions in areas where such facilities conform to zoning.

An important focus would be to relieve crowding on neighboring streets by assuring adequate on-site parking. Setbacks from property lines would be doubled, and the size of any new bars associated with a resort or motel would be limited to less than 10 percent of the entire structure’s floor area. Furthermore, new restaurants and bars on resort or motel premises could not include a “nightclub or any other form of entertainment establishment.” 

The Montauk Chamber of Commerce and East Hampton Business Alliance are rallying the opposition. Margaret Turner, the alliance president, who is also the latest Republican Party entry into the 2015 race for East Hampton Town Board, warned that the law would be restrictive and a hindrance if any hotel or motel owner decided to sell. This is unfortunate; we had hoped the business groups would seek to be good neighbors rather than to protect an unacceptable status quo, which is the result of current lax rules.

The proposal is a good beginning. However, the town should use all the tools at its disposal to make sure that those existing establishments that are already changing the character of East Hampton are brought more in line with the community’s desires for peace, quiet, and civil behavior.