Parking restrictions appear overreaching

Dear Editor,

For the last 25 years, I have been an avid runner on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. During that period of time, I have often parked at what appears to be a school bus turnaround at the end of Coffey Road in New Paltz.

Decades went by and nobody seemed to mind. I assumed it was public property. A week ago, I pulled into the usual spot, only to see a half dozen brand new “No Parking Anytime” signs installed at the town-paved turnaround and along the town-paved roadside for 50 yards. There was no indication as to who ordered this.

I contacted the Wallkill Valley Land Trust, which advised me that this was “essentially private property” and that the owners were having problems with too many cars parking there on the weekends.

Is it “essentially private property” or is it “essentially public property”? If it is New Paltz town property, then there would have to be a town ordinance passed to designate the area as “No Parking.”

I emailed both the highway superintendent and the town supervisor, but neither responded.

This looks like an overreach by a property owner who feels that it is their privilege as the landed gentry to extend beyond legal boundaries in order to protect their own possessions. The fact that representatives from local government will not comment only deepens my suspicions.

This kind of thing happens all the time in the Hamptons and, as more people buy recreational property in the Hudson Valley, we will also become subject to the same snobbery and sense of entitlement.

Richard Carr Rosendale, N.Y.