Main Beach Parking: Not For Day-Trippers

Beach lovers who don't happen to live in East Hampton Village - but who were looking forward to lazy summer weekends at its Main Beach - are in for a shock.

In its second move in as many months aimed at bringing parking problems under control, the East Hampton Village Board decided last Thursday that daily paid parking at Main Beach on weekends and holidays - a longtime option for nonvillage residents - is no more.

Only village residents with a beach sticker, or nonvillage residents willing to pay an annual $150 permit fee, will be allowed to park cars there at peak times this summer.

Those without permits may continue to park at Main Beach on weekdays, however, for a $15 fee.

Into The Streets

Explaining the move, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said the village's "public beaches commingle with residential areas" that are "not equipped for parking."

The ban on prime-time daily parking is an "interim step" to be evaluated at the end of the summer, the Mayor said.

Village officials said they had been observing the situation for some time, and that as many as "a couple of hundred cars at a time" can overflow the Main Beach lot and line up along elegant residential Ocean Avenue and Lily Pond Lane.

"Obligation"

Jennifer Tarbet, the manager of Main Beach, reported Tuesday having met with Village Police Chief Glen Stonemetz and Larry Cantwell, the Village Administrator, to discuss the "heavy growth" of traffic over the last three years.

"We are under an obligation to those with seasonal passes," Ms. Tarbet said.

"The guy from Ronkonkoma won't be able" to drive out here for the day, echoed William Heppenheimer, a board member, at last Thursday's meeting, referring to what village officials called "a proliferation" of out-of-town beachgoers.

The board's decision had not been expected, and its suddenness surpris ed some observers because the matter had not come up in public session.

However, Mr. Cantwell confirmed that the "growing problem" had been under discussion "internally" for some time, with village officials "strug gl ing with how to manage it."

"Wow!" said John Ryan, who runs the Amagansett Beach Association's private club at Indian Wells Highway, on hearing the news.

"The village likes to be exclusive," said Mr. Ryan. "I'm sure glad I'm not a day-tripper."

He predicted that Amagansett's Atlantic Avenue beach, which also offers parking on a daily basis, would catch a powerful wave of sun-worshipers who might have gone to Main Beach for the day, although, he said, "It's too crowded there already."

No Lifeguards

Mr. Ryan said he was concerned that parking problems at Main Beach might compel beachgoers with permits to park at village beaches that have no lifeguards, such as Two Mile Hollow, as an alternative.

"That would mean too many unprotected swimmers," he warned.

Last year the village sold roughly 2,200 beach permits to nonresidents, Mr. Cantwell said, and collected some $70,000 in daily parking fees at Main Beach. By eliminating daily parking there on weekends the village stands to lose about $35,000, he said.

Parking is by permit only at the other ocean beaches in East Hampton Village: Wiborg's, Georgica, Two Mile Hollow, and Beach Lane.