The East Hampton Village Board will hold a public hearing Friday at 11 a.m. on a proposed law that would establish paid parking zones in the village's commercial district and at Main and Two Mile Hollow Beaches.
The village plans to use license-plate reading technology and an online payment service to implement and enforce paid parking. According to the law, separate parking zones would be established for the Reutershan and Schenck lots downtown, the Main Beach and Two Mile Hollow lots, and the long-term parking spaces in the lot off of Lumber Lane and on Railroad Avenue.
In the Reutershan and Schenck lots, three hours of paid parking would be allowed daily between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. from May 15 through Sept. 15, according to a draft of the law, which seeks to provide the legal framework to charge for parking, but does not address many of the specific regulations previously discussed by the village board.
The village board has said village residents with beach permits would be exempt from fees, East Hampton Town residents with town beach permits would be allowed two hours of free parking, and all other visitors would be charged $2 per hour. The fees and exemptions will be included in a separate law, Beth Baldwin, the village attorney, said on Thursday. The law does, however, note that volunteers with the East Hampton Village Fire Department and Ambulance Association who also work in the commercial district could apply for a permit to be exempt from parking fees.
When parked in a paid parking zone, the law says, "the operator of the vehicle shall, either upon entering the space or upon the expiration of any permitted free parking period, immediately make payment [with] an electronic communication device."
In December, the village hired ParkMobile, a company that provides a smartphone app-based payment system, to collect parking fees. For those who don't have a smartphone or prefer not to use an app, the company will also accept payments via telephone.
After time expires, "a parked vehicle must move a minimum of 20 feet" in order to start a new time period, according to the law.
The existing code allows for 15 minutes of free parking in spaces other than those designated for the handicapped along the eastern and northern perimeter of the Reutershan lot between April 1 and Dec. 31. The proposed law would increase that time to 30 minutes.
