Letters

In February 2021, homeowners in Amagansett won their decade-long case and were informed they own the beach, known locally as Truck Beach. It’s their private property. As a natural consequence, the beach being privately owned, the court also said the town could no longer issue permits allowing members of the public to drive on their beach. Makes perfect sense. A municipality can’t issue permits allowing the public to drive across your front lawn, or park in your backyard, for example.

But that wasn’t enough. By May of last year, the beachfront homeowners had their attorneys file an emergency request asking that East Hampton Town officials be held in contempt, because, as they alleged, officials were actively enabling hundreds of people to park their cars on the homeowners’ beach. We’re talking about March, April and May, folks.

As a resolution to their purported emergency, the homeowners asked the court to issue an order directing the town to purge their contempt by enforcing the driving and parking prohibition on their beach.

In truth, prohibiting town officials from issuing permits to the public to park and drive on private property is not remotely the same as ordering the town to actively prevent the public from parking and driving on some homeowner’s private beach. That’s like asking the Town Police to have a patrol vehicle parked in my driveway just in case someone decides to walk across my front lawn. But that is what the homeowners asked for and exactly what the court demanded the town undertake.

Oh, but there is more. Despite strongly worded letters from their attorneys demanding that Town Police respond to any claims of trespass on their private beach, the homeowners have refused to cooperate in any manner with the police. In what was an otherwise orderly protest on the beach in June and October of last year, numerous police officials waited for any homeowner to come down and file a complaint. They refused. Ultimately, the police filed charges of trespass against 14 fishermen in October, but those complaints have been sitting on a prosecutor’s desk for nearly a year waiting for a homeowner to come down and cooperate. Again, silence.

It seems the homeowners are afraid of the truth: That an ancient reservation contained in their property deeds will establish that a trespass charge will not hold up because all 28,000 residents of the Town of East Hampton have a legal right to be on that beach under the color of fishing activity.

And that’s the truth. But fear not homeowners. While you may not otherwise regulate a property right that belongs to the people, a municipality can. But that’s only if you give it back.

Daniel G. Rodgers, Esq.

Southampton Village