Town Closer to Condemnation of Truck Beach, Receives Trustee Check

Residents on both sides of a dispute over so-called Truck Beach on Napeague spoke at East Hampton Town Hall on Thursday. They included, left, Caroline McCaffery, who said she worried about the safety of beachgoers, and Brian Pardini, who told the board that his family was among those who depended on income from commercial fishing there.

LTV

Dec. 5, 2015

David E. Rattray

The Town of East Hampton is a step closer to a condemnation bid on two disputed slivers of ocean beach on Napeague, having received the necessary survey.

Condemnation of the stretches of oceanfront known as Truck Beach, as well as a smaller area to the east, would represent a town attempt to end lawsuits brought by several homeowners associations and individuals seeking to block access by four-wheel-drive vehicles.

While driving on the beach is a longstanding practice in East Hampton Town, with roots in colonial-era fishing and whaling, the number of people with four-wheel-drive vehicles has exploded in recent decades. (East Hampton residents can obtain a free permit to drive on most beaches; nonresidents pay a fee.)

The lawsuits are a response to the popularity of Truck Beach, where on summer weekends, Sundays in particular, in excess of 100 vehicles line up side-by-side while their occupants swim and socialize

Following up on an agreement with the town board to share costs leading up to condemnation, the East Hampton Town Trustees delivered a check on Thursday for half the bill for the property survey.

Diane McNally, the trustees' clerk, appeared at a Thursday evening town board meeting bearing a check for $17,362.50, the trustees' share of the $34,735 fee.

"This is not a lot of money in consideration of what has been spent and will be spent in the future, but in actuality that beach is priceless to this community, so we are going forward," Ms. McNally said.

Thursday's meeting was crowded with residents who urged the town board to continue to push back against the suit. Several beachfront property owners attended as well. One, Caroline McCaffrey, a 20-year resident of the area, said that fast-moving trucks both on the beach and the narrow roads used to access it were a safety concern for her and for neighborhood children.

"The debate about condemnation has only added fuel to the fire. I am afraid that someone will have to die before this is resolved," she said.

"I'm really frustrated that there are not more people standing up for this right that we have that I have been enjoying for more than 40 years," Brian Pardini, a commercial fisherman, said. His family and others depend on income that, in part, comes from using the Napeague beach for commercial fishing.

Some of the beachfront property owners have said that condemnation is likely to be expensive. One speaker, Cindi Crain, of Safe Access for Everyone, a new group, said that there were free alternatives to the town's taking over the disputed strip of sand that should be explored.

"Truck Beach is owned by 140 individual property owners, each of whom will claim damages under eminent domain," Ms. Crain said. The cost to town taxpayers, she said, could be $14 million or as much as $70 million.

Brian Buckhout, speaking in turn, a member of Citizens for Access Rights, disagreed with predictions that the condemnation price tag would be high. "My personal opinion is that the land is worthless, as it is underwater at least six months of the year. It's not buildable; it's a bucket of sand," he said.