Still at Odds on Dolphin Drive

A hearing before the East Hampton Town Board last Thursday on a management plan for a town nature preserve on Napeague, which abuts Dolphin ­Drive on its western edge, rekindled a debate over parking on Dolphin Drive, a concept to which neighborhood residents are vehemently opposed.

Opinions are also divided among members of the town’s nature preserve committee, which presented a draft management plan to the board that includes a call for up to 25 parking spaces on the east side of Dolphin Drive, adjacent to the preserve, in order to provide the public with access to the preserve and its oceanfront stretch.

Neighborhood residents, who had complained to the town when a parking prohibition on the other side of the drive was lifted and succeeded in having it restored, painted the parking element of the plan as destructive to the preserve’s fragile ecosystem.

Those in favor of the idea, calling parking key to upholding a policy of ensuring access to public properties, said that there is ample space for parking along the road right-of-way, without harming the preserve. Beach access should be preserved for all, Brian Buckhout of the group Citizens for Access Rights, which has been advocating for beach vehicle access on Napeague, told the board.

A sand pedestrian path and a vehicle access way traverse the corner of the preserve from Dolphin Drive to the beach.

If the concern is providing an additional public beach, said Jeremy Samuelson of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, then the town board should discuss that matter directly. The management plan for the preserve, known as the South Flora preserve, should be considered on its own, he said, with a focus on the specifics of how the preserve, which contains protected species, should be maintained and protected.

The town board is to discuss the draft management plan at an upcoming session.