Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 23, 2006 0:02:14 GMT -5
Long Island town finds a way to limit ferry traffic
By Read Kingsbury
www.blockislandtimes.com/
For years the resort town of East Hampton, on the east tip of the South Fork of Long Island, has fought off ferry proposals that it believes would increase traffic through its congested streets. It has one terminal, in Montauk, where the Viking line operates a summer passenger boat to Block Island, and residents felt that was enough.
So in 1997 the town adopted a local ordinance that bans fast ferries and car-carrying ferries — both of which, of course, would attract substantially more highway traffic.
In September 2004, Cross Sound Ferry of New London, Conn. — the company that runs a high-speed ferry between New London and Block Island — joined by the North Fork towns of Southold and Shelter Island, challenged the law. Cross Sound runs a fast ferry and large car-carrying ferries between New London and Orient Point on the North Fork, and has wanted a South Fork terminal for years.
In April 2005, Viking Ferry, which wants to run a fast ferry out of Montauk to Block Island, also filed suit. Both cases were in the federal district court in Central Islip, Long Island. Both cases raise basic constitutional principles; “These are not the garden-variety types of lawsuits,” the Viking lawyer told the East Hampton Star.
Last December the district judge, Sandra J. Feuerstein, issued a decision that upheld, across the board, the town’s right to limit ferry access. The decision is being appealed, but meanwhile, says Town Attorney Laura Molinari, the town considers that it has a valid ordinance.
That would mean, among other things, that Viking won’t be able to run its brand new Superstar catamaran out of Montauk (See Story, Page 1).
The Feuerstein decision, some believe, may have meaning for Block Island, which faces a rising tide of catamaran-carried visitors.
Indeed, First Warden Jack Savoie has been studying the decision. And he says, “I am encouraged by it. It gives us a little bit of hope.” Savoie pointed out, however, that the advantage East Hampton had was enabling legislation in place from the state of New York that allowed the town to enact stricter laws.
Savoie is gathering names and “putting feelers” upstate to explore creating similar legislation for Block Island. The question of “who controls interstate commerce?” remains complicated, said Savoie. In the meantime, however, he plans to visit East Hampton and Greenport, N.Y., — another potential ferry site — to speak to officials in both towns.
Long-standing traffic problems
The East Hampton case arises from a long history of transportation issues on the east end of Long Island, issues that have caused hard feelings between neighboring towns.
“Since 1966,” Judge Feuerstein noted in her decision, “myriad studies, reports and conferences confirmed what residents already knew: inadequate roads and an increasing population were creating escalating traffic congestion… ”
Except for the vintage Viking boat that has plodded modestly once a day to Block Island and back, East Hampton had for years experienced little demand for ferry service. Development of the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos north of New London changed that.
The gambling traffic caused the popularity of Cross Sound’s New London-Orient Point service to surge; the number of boat trips increased 87 percent in the last decade. In 1995 the ferry company started a passenger-only high speed ferry for the route — a service tailored specifically for the casino trade.
Many of those casino customers come from the South Fork. Gamblers can take the long way around Peconic Bay or they can, with a couple of short ferry hops, cut through Shelter Island and the town of Southold to Orient Point.
As traffic through those communities ballooned, residents’ unhappiness grew. In fact, Southold has just sued Cross Sound to roll its Orient Point schedule back to 1995, because it says Cross Sound has not done the terminal improvements it agreed to at that time.
Since the early 1980s, Cross Sound has expressed interest in running its boats around the North Fork and into the north shore of East Hampton. Several sites have been eyed, all of which aroused neighborhood opposition. The town, imagining the traffic that boats carrying 60 to 100 cars and 400 to 1,000 passengers would generate on their already choked roads, resisted.
In 1995 the town board declared a moratorium on ferry proposals, and ordered up yet another study. It found that new ferry operations, particularly the high-volume catamarans, would “substantially worsen the already bad traffic situation” in East Hampton.
The town board then passed the Ferry Law, which makes it exceedingly difficult to build or expand a passenger ferry terminal, saying “no ferry which has more than 2,000 installed horsepower and the capability of traveling at a speed in excess of 20 knots, nor any vehicle ferry… ” shall dock at any terminal in town. (The fast ferries currently serving Block Island can travel up to 35 knots.)
Supporting the new law was a set of Findings and Objectives. They noted, “the popularity of very large casinos established on the Connecticut mainland… has greatly increased ferry traffic… congestion on the Town’s highways that has become an increasingly serious threat to public health and safety and to the economic vitality and general livability of the town.”
Car ferry from Montauk?
In its lawsuit, Cross Sound was joined by Southold and Shelter Island, towns claiming to have been burdened by the ferry-bound traffic over their roads. The plaintiffs alleged that East Hampton had violated the constitutional rights to engage in interstate commerce and travel, and also had abused its police power.
Viking followed suit a few months later, alleging that East Hampton was “motivated by isolationist intent” and had with its Ferry Law erected “a barrier against interstate trade and commerce.”
Significantly for Block Island, Viking said it was “ready, willing and able” to provide vehicle ferry service out of Montauk. It had already ordered a fast ferry, which it received last fall.
The Feuerstein decision addresses only the Cross Sound suit but clearly answers the Viking lawsuit also. First, the judge dismissed Southold and Shelter Island from the lawsuit, finding that they had not shown specific injury from their neighbor’s Ferry Law.
Next, she took up the charge that the Ferry Law violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution (Congress shall “regulate commerce… among the several states”). Not true, she said, because the law does not discriminate between interstate and intrastate commerce, because there are “other available travel alternatives,” and because the law addresses “a legitimate local purpose; the promotion of health and safety of East Hampton residents.”
As for the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause guaranteeing the freedom of travel, Judge Feuerstein cited a circuit court decision that “[T]ravelers do not have a constitutional right to the most convenient form of travel.”
“Although the Ferry Law may make travel to and from East Hampton less convenient, it does not infringe upon the fundamental right to travel,” she wrote.
Finally, she concluded, the town was well within its police power rights to constrain its traffic by banning fast ferries and car ferries.
By Read Kingsbury
www.blockislandtimes.com/
For years the resort town of East Hampton, on the east tip of the South Fork of Long Island, has fought off ferry proposals that it believes would increase traffic through its congested streets. It has one terminal, in Montauk, where the Viking line operates a summer passenger boat to Block Island, and residents felt that was enough.
So in 1997 the town adopted a local ordinance that bans fast ferries and car-carrying ferries — both of which, of course, would attract substantially more highway traffic.
In September 2004, Cross Sound Ferry of New London, Conn. — the company that runs a high-speed ferry between New London and Block Island — joined by the North Fork towns of Southold and Shelter Island, challenged the law. Cross Sound runs a fast ferry and large car-carrying ferries between New London and Orient Point on the North Fork, and has wanted a South Fork terminal for years.
In April 2005, Viking Ferry, which wants to run a fast ferry out of Montauk to Block Island, also filed suit. Both cases were in the federal district court in Central Islip, Long Island. Both cases raise basic constitutional principles; “These are not the garden-variety types of lawsuits,” the Viking lawyer told the East Hampton Star.
Last December the district judge, Sandra J. Feuerstein, issued a decision that upheld, across the board, the town’s right to limit ferry access. The decision is being appealed, but meanwhile, says Town Attorney Laura Molinari, the town considers that it has a valid ordinance.
That would mean, among other things, that Viking won’t be able to run its brand new Superstar catamaran out of Montauk (See Story, Page 1).
The Feuerstein decision, some believe, may have meaning for Block Island, which faces a rising tide of catamaran-carried visitors.
Indeed, First Warden Jack Savoie has been studying the decision. And he says, “I am encouraged by it. It gives us a little bit of hope.” Savoie pointed out, however, that the advantage East Hampton had was enabling legislation in place from the state of New York that allowed the town to enact stricter laws.
Savoie is gathering names and “putting feelers” upstate to explore creating similar legislation for Block Island. The question of “who controls interstate commerce?” remains complicated, said Savoie. In the meantime, however, he plans to visit East Hampton and Greenport, N.Y., — another potential ferry site — to speak to officials in both towns.
Long-standing traffic problems
The East Hampton case arises from a long history of transportation issues on the east end of Long Island, issues that have caused hard feelings between neighboring towns.
“Since 1966,” Judge Feuerstein noted in her decision, “myriad studies, reports and conferences confirmed what residents already knew: inadequate roads and an increasing population were creating escalating traffic congestion… ”
Except for the vintage Viking boat that has plodded modestly once a day to Block Island and back, East Hampton had for years experienced little demand for ferry service. Development of the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos north of New London changed that.
The gambling traffic caused the popularity of Cross Sound’s New London-Orient Point service to surge; the number of boat trips increased 87 percent in the last decade. In 1995 the ferry company started a passenger-only high speed ferry for the route — a service tailored specifically for the casino trade.
Many of those casino customers come from the South Fork. Gamblers can take the long way around Peconic Bay or they can, with a couple of short ferry hops, cut through Shelter Island and the town of Southold to Orient Point.
As traffic through those communities ballooned, residents’ unhappiness grew. In fact, Southold has just sued Cross Sound to roll its Orient Point schedule back to 1995, because it says Cross Sound has not done the terminal improvements it agreed to at that time.
Since the early 1980s, Cross Sound has expressed interest in running its boats around the North Fork and into the north shore of East Hampton. Several sites have been eyed, all of which aroused neighborhood opposition. The town, imagining the traffic that boats carrying 60 to 100 cars and 400 to 1,000 passengers would generate on their already choked roads, resisted.
In 1995 the town board declared a moratorium on ferry proposals, and ordered up yet another study. It found that new ferry operations, particularly the high-volume catamarans, would “substantially worsen the already bad traffic situation” in East Hampton.
The town board then passed the Ferry Law, which makes it exceedingly difficult to build or expand a passenger ferry terminal, saying “no ferry which has more than 2,000 installed horsepower and the capability of traveling at a speed in excess of 20 knots, nor any vehicle ferry… ” shall dock at any terminal in town. (The fast ferries currently serving Block Island can travel up to 35 knots.)
Supporting the new law was a set of Findings and Objectives. They noted, “the popularity of very large casinos established on the Connecticut mainland… has greatly increased ferry traffic… congestion on the Town’s highways that has become an increasingly serious threat to public health and safety and to the economic vitality and general livability of the town.”
Car ferry from Montauk?
In its lawsuit, Cross Sound was joined by Southold and Shelter Island, towns claiming to have been burdened by the ferry-bound traffic over their roads. The plaintiffs alleged that East Hampton had violated the constitutional rights to engage in interstate commerce and travel, and also had abused its police power.
Viking followed suit a few months later, alleging that East Hampton was “motivated by isolationist intent” and had with its Ferry Law erected “a barrier against interstate trade and commerce.”
Significantly for Block Island, Viking said it was “ready, willing and able” to provide vehicle ferry service out of Montauk. It had already ordered a fast ferry, which it received last fall.
The Feuerstein decision addresses only the Cross Sound suit but clearly answers the Viking lawsuit also. First, the judge dismissed Southold and Shelter Island from the lawsuit, finding that they had not shown specific injury from their neighbor’s Ferry Law.
Next, she took up the charge that the Ferry Law violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution (Congress shall “regulate commerce… among the several states”). Not true, she said, because the law does not discriminate between interstate and intrastate commerce, because there are “other available travel alternatives,” and because the law addresses “a legitimate local purpose; the promotion of health and safety of East Hampton residents.”
As for the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause guaranteeing the freedom of travel, Judge Feuerstein cited a circuit court decision that “[T]ravelers do not have a constitutional right to the most convenient form of travel.”
“Although the Ferry Law may make travel to and from East Hampton less convenient, it does not infringe upon the fundamental right to travel,” she wrote.
Finally, she concluded, the town was well within its police power rights to constrain its traffic by banning fast ferries and car ferries.