Parking at Old Lyme Beaches—Beach Sticker Price Hikes, Guest Beach Permits, And Paying For Kiosks.

As a wintry mix of snow and sleet fell outside Old Lyme Town Hall last night, inside the debate was about town beaches and the upcoming summer season. 

The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen voted to raise the price of seasonal passes (beach stickers) for residents from $20 to $25 and from $15 to $20 for seniors. They also approved instituting temporary passes for visitors to Old Lyme.

Following requests from local inns, the board agreed to allow up to three seasonal passes for each of the town's two inns, issued by name to The Bee & Thistle and the Old Lyme Inn, which could be handed out to guests who may want to visit Sound View, White Sands, and Hains Park by Rogers Lake. 

The board set the price for each pass at $50, with the understanding that the passes would be loaned to guests who would return them to the inn after each use. First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said she favored this proposal because it would help support local businesses. 

Temporary Passes for Renters and Houseguests   

After hearing complaints from property owners who live near Sound View last year about the high cost of daily parking for their out-of-town visitors, the board also agreed that the town would provide day passes for guests of local residents for $10 a day.

Board members also approved making temporary weekly passes available to people staying at vacation rentals at Sound View Beach. They set the cost for each permit at $25 a week.

These temporary passes would allow people to park on the street or in the town parking lot at Sound View and Hains Park only. The town does not charge for parking at White Sands but that parking lot is small and access is restricted to local residents because White Sands is a private beach association.  

As Selectman Skip Sibley pointed out, passes won't guarantee parking. If people don't get there early in the morning, they may be hard-pressed to find a space down by Sound View Beach, particularly on summer weekends, because the number of town parking spaces is limited. 

The board decided not to raise the permit fees for private parking lots this year. Last year, Sound View Commission suggested the annual operating fee be raised from $20 to $40 per parking space. The Board of Selectmen decided to split the difference and raised it to $30 last year and plans to keep it at that level this year.

Next year, when the Sound View improvements are complete, they said they would revisit the price of permits for private parking.  

A Request For Sound View Parking Kiosks  

The town has big plans to revamp Sound View, with permanent bathrooms, a picnic area, bike paths and parking kiosks, but because the grant that will reimburse the town for 80 percent of the project wasn't approved until recently, that's not going to happen this year.

However, the Board of Selectmen said they didn't want to wait another year to install parking kiosks for street parking. The town started charging for street parking on Hartford Avenue for the first time last year. The fees collected from street parking added more than $30,000 to town coffers last season.

These fees, however, were collected by town park rangers, which was less than ideal. Installing kiosks would make it easier to ensure that people paid and would allow more flexible pricing, as people would be able to pay by the hour rather than paying for a full day. 

For that reason, First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder proposed that the town pay to install two parking kiosks on Hartford Avenue this year. The town would also clearly delineate street parking with painted lines and signs. Doing so, she said, would make it "a less chaotic summer all around."   

The cost of installing two parking kiosks on Hartford Avenue amounts to about $25,000. Creating a layout for parking with paint and signs is about $2,300. That estimate is based on the proposal for the Sound View improvements.

Here's the kicker. Anything to the town does this year would not be eligible for reimbursement under the grant the state approved for the Sound View project, which includes proposals for kiosks and parking. (More kiosks would still be needed for the town parking lot and for improvement to the town lot.) 

The Board of Selectmen agreed to put the proposed special appropriation on the agenda for a Town Meeting that it scheduled for April 9 at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School.