Fairfield Weekend Beach Ban Not Strict Enough? Patch Poll Results

FAIRFIELD, CT — More than 40 percent of respondents to a recent Patch poll feel Fairfield’s weekend beach ban for out-of-towners is not restrictive enough.

Out of 890 responses to the poll asking readers if they agree with the town’s decision to allow only residents on Fairfield beaches during weekends, 51.1 percent said they agreed with the ban and 43.1 percent said town beaches should be exclusively for residents seven days a week. Less than 6 percent said the rule was too strict.

Fairfield instituted the weekend ban for non-residents after its beaches devolved into “a complete and utter disaster,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said at a Board of Selectmen meeting earlier in the month. Large crowds created excessive traffic and garbage, and made it impossible for beachgoers to social distance from one another as a precaution against coronavirus transmission.

The town addressed the issue by allowing only residents to use the beaches Saturday and Sunday, erecting temporary fencing, and posting extra signs explaining parking fines had increased to $200 from $80.

“We were having safety issues on the weekends,” said Jackie Bertolone, Kupchick’s chief of staff, who added there had been no problems with overcrowding during the week and the decision to close the beaches to out-of-towners was “totally COVID-safety related.”

It is not unusual for municipalities to give residents preferential treatment when it comes to town amenities, and to charge higher fees for non-residents, according to Town Attorney Jim Baldwin.

“That’s all perfectly legal,” he said.

But resident-exclusive beaches are highly atypical outside the current public health emergency, according to Baldwin. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Fairfield, Westport and Norwalk have all implemented beach restrictions for non-locals.

“During the pandemic obviously if those beaches are overly populated, as they were over the weekends, and that same situation arises (on weekdays) they could absolutely do it,” Baldwin said of a weekday beach ban for out-of-towners.

Baldwin added in order to execute such a rule the town would need, “a rational basis.”

As of Wednesday, the number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases in Fairfield since March totaled 702, with 145 virus-associated deaths and 498 recoveries, according to town data. New cases have stabilized in recent months, and are now, for the most part, increasing slowly and incrementally.