Prescribe $250 Relief For Parking Headache
East Hampton Village plans to amend its parking and traffic laws before the high season arrives, and may decide to charge nonresidents an annual fee of $250 to park their cars in the long-term lot near the railroad station off Lumber Lane.
An analysis of cars parked there showed 90 percent of them belong to people who do not live in the village, according to a committee that has been studying the situation.
Larry Cantwell, the Village Administrator, said the figure was obtained by checking the beach stickers on the cars.
"People using the Long Island Rail Road park there for as long as a month," said Mr. Cantwell. "It has become a storage area for second-home owners."
Free For Residents
The Village Board will meet at 10 this morning to hear the committee's report, and will hold a public hearing before making changes in the law.
Among other things, the report recommends the establishment of a permit system allowing village residents to use the long-term lots for free, with their beach stickers as evidence of residency.
One possible alternative to the $250 fee, said Mr. Cantwell, would be to impose a daily charge on cars lacking permits. The latter system would be an accommodation to the occasional user, he noted.
"We don't want to discourage people from using the train," Mr. Cantwell said, "but the parking lots were not designed for that."
Unexpected Company
The two lots, the westernmost with 175 spaces and another just east with 220, were primarily designed for businesses and employees, to provide unlimited parking within a four-minute walk of the shopping district, as well as for those who enjoy Herrick Park.
It was also expected that they would free spaces on Main Street and Newtown Lane for shoppers, particularly in season, when two-hour parking limits apply.
Instead, said Mr. Cantwell ruefully, "People from other municipalities come to use our nicely lit facility."
There are 30 spaces along Railroad Avenue, where the trains stop, that might be "better utilized" as long-term parking, the report suggests. As matters stand, railway passengers' use of the long-term lots is "rapidly becoming a conflict with other parking needs."
Besides Mr. Cantwell, committee members included Elbert Edwards and David Brown, Village Board members, and East Hampton Village Police Chief Glen Stonemetz.
Gingerbread Extension
Traffic on Gingerbread Lane Extension is also on the board's agenda this morning.
Mr. Cantwell described matters in that area as "a mess." Gridlock and confusion have been increasing since September, when the John Marshall Elementary School moved its entrance driveway from Church Lane to Gingerbread Lane Extension.
The new Learning Center, which houses the East Hampton Day Care Center, adult day care, and the East Hampton prekindergarten program, opened its doors at the same time, at the end of Gingerbread Lane Extension.
Even more traffic is expected after Feb. 24, when the School District's 100 kindergarteners return from temporary quarters at the former Most Holy Trinity School on Meadow Lane to new classrooms in the John Marshall building.
The village asked Dunn Engineering Associates of Westhampton Beach, to recommend improvements in the neighborhood's traffic pattern, which board members will review.
Among the firm's suggestions are a center left-turn lane for Lumber Lane and both school driveways, additional parking on the north or south sides of Gingerbread Lane Extension, and the removal of the island at the intersection of Gingerbread and Race Lanes.
This morning's deliberations will take place in Village Hall.