East Hampton town board cancels light truck proposal

After getting complaints from town residents about commercial trucks being parked in driveways and yards -- so many that residential properties were beginning to look like businesses -- the East Hampton town board came up with a change in the town code to define light trucks as a way to keep those vehicles out of the neighborhoods.

But just before a public hearing was to take place Thursday night, the resolution was pulled.

Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said that when the board checked town code, there was nothing there to keep those trucks off the streets, either.

"You don't want to move them out of the yards and onto the roads," he explained, telling people who came to the board meeting that they were welcome to comment about the proposed code change but, since the official hearing had been canceled, they would have to do it a second time for their comments to become part of the town record.

The proposal would have created a special "light truck" category in the town zoning code, defining those vehicles as having a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more, and would have applied to vehicles of up to 25 feet in length.

Those vehicles would have been banned from parking on residential lots, unless they were used by the occupant of the house.

Currently, light trucks are treated by the town as cars.

Town officials said they would hold another hearing on the proposal -- or one like it -- once they come up with a code amendment to keep trucks off streets as well.

"Some places ban parking on the streets from 1 to 6 a.m. We don't," Wilkinson said.