The Hamptons doesn’t want to be the next ‘Jersey Shore’
The only things missing may be Snooki and The Situation.
The Hamptons, long the summer playground of the rich and powerful whose grand oceanfront mansions evoke high society, is trying to avoid becoming just another “Jersey Shore”-like stretch of sand and sun.
As of May 1, homeowners on the East End have to register their summer-share houses with local authorities so the zoning cops can make sure the homes don’t turn into rowdy, crowded party sites.
Ask East End residents and they’ll complain about public sex, intoxication and urination happening regularly with the rental crowd.
The new law, discussed among civic leaders for years as the summer party scene got progressively out of hand, was passed on Dec. 15 by a fed-up East Hampton Town Board.
The registry law makes it easier for cops to enforce existing laws that bar the rental of summer shares to more than four unrelated persons or for parking more than four cars in any driveway.
But some locals fear cracking down on the summer rental business — guesstimated to be worth $360 million — will hurt their economy.
“I haven’t heard anything negative,” said David Betts, the East Hampton Town Board’s public safety director tasked with rental-registry enforcement. “We’ve already signed up more than 1,300 property owners who want to rent.”
The war against the drunken summer invaders gained speed after last year’s Fourth of July, when 464 calls for police assistance were logged.
That was enough for Perry Duryea III, patriarch of Montauk’s most prominent family, who placed a full-page ad in The East Hampton Star demanding action.
“Drunken revelers make the post-midnight scene look like a page out of ‘Apocalypse Now’,” Duryea’s open-letter ad declared. “And when you wake up to find that an inebriated stranger has wandered into, and passed out in your house, there is really a problem.”
In New Jersey, zoning regulations like the one that took affect on Sunday throughout East Hampton Town have been around for decades.
In Seaside Heights, where MTV’s “Jersey Shore” was filmed, giving birth to the careers of celebs Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, “Animal House” zoning regulations limit the number of people who can be jammed into a summer rental and require summer-rental registration.
As the Hamptons summer- rental season nears, local commentary suggests Hamptonites are as divided about what the new registry will do for their communities as they were united about the need for something to be done.
For every “Montauk Rental Madness” online group, there’s a StopTheRentalRegistry.com; for every “Fighting for Montauk” website, there’s a Change.org petition against it.
One side believes the town will die without drunk-sailor spending from short-term visitors in high-turnover rentals. The other side believes those same visitors are destroying what makes the Hamptons a kind of heaven.
Local authorities said they plan to strictly enforce the new regulations. But they bristle at the idea that the Hamptons is turning into the Jersey Shore.
“East Hampton can never be compared to the Jersey Shore,” town lawyer Michael Sendlenski said.