New Limits on Parking at Ditch Plain in Montauk

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a  hearing at 6:30 p.m. on proposed parking restrictions at the lots serving the popular Ditch Plain ocean beach in Montauk. 

Three months after Montauk residents aired  concerns that the town would “pave paradise” in an effort to improve circulation and navigability, the two westernmost lots have nonetheless been repaved and reconfigured. The easternmost lot, commonly referred to as “Dirt Lot,” remains unpaved, as residents had urged in March. 

Under consideration tonight is a law that would add a residents-only restriction to the westernmost lot, where there is a comfort station. Residents, including members of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee, had asked the board to consider this restriction, according to Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the town board’s liaison to the committee. 

Another proposal is that a resident or nonresident permit be required to park at the lot that extends from Deforest Road to the beach line at the dead end of Otis Road. A third proposal would prohibit parking trailers in any of the three lots, which is aimed at alleviating the scarcity of spaces and improving navigability. 

In March, Ms. Overby likened the proposals to the effort made to improve navigability and safety at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett. That beach’s residents-only parking lot now has an attended booth on Indian Wells Highway, and nonresident vehicles and the buses and taxis that once deposited and collected beachgoers are turned away. 

At the board’s March 20 meeting, Montauk residents had expressed frustration that the board, however well intentioned, would further erode the hamlet’s rural character by paving the lots. Some also expressed the fear that adding impervious surfaces would force stormwater to the ocean and questioned the need to reconfigure the lots to create additional spaces. They asked the board to rethink its proposals.