UPDATE: East Hampton Town Says No To Petition, Sale of Ronjo Alleyway Expected To Continue
UPDATE: April 27, 11:56
Six East Hampton Democrat have filed a lawsuit against the Town of East Hampton and Fred Overton over the denied petition. The new lawsuit says that the Town violated lawful procedure by invalidating the petition.
East Hampton Town may have turned down a petition that requested stoppage of the sale of a town-owned alleyway to the new owners of the Ronjo Motel in Montauk, but the owners expect things to proceed as planned.
Chris Jones and Lawrence Seidlick, the new owners of the motel—now renamed The Montauk Beach House—found out while buying the Ronjo Motel that 3,700 square feet of the town alleyway, which runs perpendicular to South Edison Street, runs through the property of the motel, which has encroached on it over the years. Initially, Jones was to buy the alleyway from the Town for $35,000, but that move sparked controversy in some circles and a petition was created to keep a sale from moving forward.
As Jones, who also owns the Sole East Hotel in Montauk, explains to Danshamptons.com in an interview, “Basically what the Town has done is that they have turned down a petition that was seeking a permissive refferendum. So as far as we’re concerned, the sale is going to continue to go through to whatever the valuation comes in at.”
Why was the petition turned down? Invalid signatures. Of the 644 signatures on the petition, 269 did not check out according to the Town.