West Tisbury has extended the hours that a resident beach sticker is needed at Lambert’s Cove Beach this summer in order to deal with growing congestion in the area, town officials said. 

This year, parking stickers are required three hours earlier than previous years. Starting at 7 a.m., only West Tisbury residents and property owners with beach stickers are allowed on the beach. Previously, stickers were not required until 10 a.m.

The change was prompted by the large number of vehicles in the beach parking lot and the surrounding area, according to the town's parks and recreation summer supervisor Randy Fauteux.

“When you have 60 cars out there at 7:15 in the morning, it’s more than just dogs and parking [that is affected],” he said. “It’s also the road. You have other people complaining, the lumber yard, people going to work. It’s chaos.” 

Mr. Fauteux added that the issue has been ongoing for years. 

“[The old hours] also invited people not having dogs on the leash, people doing things that they shouldn’t be doing,” he said. “It just became too much, and now that we’ve changed it.”

Lambert’s Cove is popular with dog owners because dogs are allowed on the beach until 10 a.m. That rule is still enacted, though out-of-town owners are not allowed after 7 a.m.

Beach stickers also rose in price this year. A car sticker is now $75, up from $50, and a walk-on pass now costs $15, a $5 increase from previous years. 

This is the first time the price has been changed in over 20 years, according to parks and recreation administrator Peggy Stone. 

The reason for the change is increasing town costs. 

“It had been recommended by the finance committee several times for us to increase our prices and the committee felt we didn’t need to and wanted to just keep things status quo for our residents, but over time, [it was] what was needed,” Ms. Stone said.  

Though the money doesn’t go directly back to the committee’s own budget, it helps the town, and therefore the committee, addressing various needs.  

“We have a lot of big money items being done with Park and Rec, with our building maintenance, improving the trail, our fields, our town grounds, the ball fields, the tennis courts,” Ms. Stone said. “We’re doing a lot of improvements overall for our properties, and it’s just one way to increase revenue.”