Triton Lane Pilot Beach Driving Plan Is Dropped by Southampton Town Board

The tide has turned on a proposed beach driving pilot program at Triton Lane Beach in Hampton Bays: Southampton Town officials this week said they were abandoning the plan, and would seek another location to try out the pilot program.

Adjourned to this week, a public hearing held on April 25 before the Town Board elicited opposition from community members.

This week, as the Town Board meeting opened on Tuesday, May 9, Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, who sponsored the measure on behalf of the Town Trustees, said she planned to close the hearing and take no further action “as we look for any location that is more conducive to what we’re trying to do and can facilitate more people in a safer matter.”

The plan called for opening the end of Triton Lane up to beach driving on Sundays and federal holidays during the summer. Currently, people with beach driving permits may drive and park on the beaches before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m.

Only one ocean beach, known as the “Picnic Area” in Southampton Village, is open for all-day driving and parking. It was noted at the hearing that opening a second site was part of the town showing a good faith effort to settle a lawsuit brought by neighbors of the Picnic Area, who have complained that they face an undue burden as living near the only location in the town where beach driving is allowed.

Measuring just 150 feet, a proposed parking area on the beach off Triton Lane would have allowed no more than 30 cars to park on the sand. They would have been allowed 75 feet in either direction from the end of Triton Lane.

From the outset, McNamara wasn’t thrilled with the plan. She felt the western section of the pilot area was too close to Hot Dog Beach. Speakers at the first hearing also spoke to that issue, expressing concern about vehicles so near a bathing beach. Others spoke to the overall impact of vehicles on environmentally-sensitive beaches.

McNamara also noted this week that section of beach in question was closed due to the presence of endangered piping plovers for weeks during the last two summers. Should the tiny protected shorebirds return this summer, the program would have had to close down anyway.

Although the announcement was made, and some audience members left, a handful still took advantage of the chance to speak during the hearing.

Hampton Bays resident Amy Paradise said she’d like beach driving to cease altogether in the town. She said that while she understands the sentimental attachment people may have to the tradition, times have changed. The population has burgeoned, meaning more vehicles.

Awareness of potential impacts to the environment is also different from back in the old days, she said.

“This whole thing has to go away,” she added.

Another Hampton Bays resident, Gayle Lombardi, called Hampton Bays beaches one of the few guilty pleasures residents have. She reckoned the program would have been difficult to monitor and police.

East Quogue resident Anne Algieri said she knew the measure would be dropped but remained in the Town Hall meeting room to commend the board. As beaches disappear, it becomes more and more important to preserve them, she said.