Old Lyme — As thousands flocked to the Connecticut shoreline on Memorial Day weekend, sunbathers and partygoers heading to the Sound View Beach at the end of Hartford Avenue were met with another fence visibly sectioning off what is public beach and private property.

Up until now, the strip of sand connecting the two town-owned Sound View beaches at the ends of Hartford and Swan Avenues has remained a relatively open space and widely perceived as public beach, as The Pavilion bar and the recently closed Lenny’s on the Beach opted to keep their privately owned beaches open to the general public.

But with Kokomo’s Restaurant and Bar — which opened last month in the former Lenny's space — seeking to establish a “family-friendly atmosphere,” owner Brian Cleary and property owner Frank Noe have erected two white picket fences along Kokomo’s property lines, making Sound View, which is about 40 feet in width and also flanked by the controversial Miami Beach Association fence, feel even more narrow than before.

According to Sound View Commission Chair Frank Pappalardo, who’s also consulted with Zoning Enforcement Officer Keith Rosenfeld on the matter, Noe is well within his property rights to put up the fence and did not need a special permit from the town to do so.

“Our point of view is that we are providing space for our customers. A very specific space for them,” Kokomo’s general manager James Patrick “JP” Moon said by phone Thursday. “We just felt that this is what would be best for our customers.”

Extending from the restaurant to the high-tide line, the two fences, which block off a section of beach for Kokomo’s patrons, or those willing to pay a $10 “clean beach fee,” symbolize something larger, however, in the evolution of Sound View over recent years, Pappalardo explained.

Originally deeded to the town for “the unorganized general public” in the 1880s by developer Harry Hilliard, Sound View is just one of the public beaches left along Connecticut’s shoreline.

As one of those few spaces to which large crowds of visitors have been funneled every summer, Sound View also has become known for rowdy and lewd behavior, leaving private property owners and abutting homeowners’ associations feeling increasing pressure to parcel away their strips of sand from the general public.

"It’s unfortunate but it’s understandable," said Pappalardo, who grew up in the neighborhood and owns property on Swan Avenue. "I’m not a big advocate of fences, but I certainly understand the private property owners' position."

"It's the nature of the way our guests have treated the beach that has caused this situation, and it’s one that can’t really be controlled," Pappalardo continued. "It’s not the town residents that have created the beach to be this way, and it’s not the property owners. It’s also not just the bars. It’s a small subgroup that trashes the place, and it's unfortunate."

In an effort to curb undesirable behavior at the beach, the town established the Sound View Commission nearly 10 years ago help resolve and oversee behavioral, as well as developmental, issues in the neighborhood.

Since then, while working in conjunction with the commission, the town created several ordinances to address those issues. For example, it banned buses loaded with partygoers from entering Sound View streets in 2009, and capped the size of coolers to just 5 quarts in 2014.

But over the Memorial Day weekend, which saw this year’s first days of summer-like weather, Sound View still had its share of shocking incidents. A man drinking on the beach nearly drowned in front of the Pavilion on Monday evening, requiring an airlift by Life Star to Hartford Hospital. And in a Sound View Commission meeting last Tuesday, commission members discussed smoking violations and hookah pipe complaints brought forward by residents in response to the weekend, as well as parking violations and a general lack in policing throughout the neighborhood.

“There’s no way to control it all,” First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said in an interview Tuesday, adding that fences just placed around the neighborhood’s Porta-Potties this year were kicked in over the weekend. In years past, she’s seen and heard of people driving drunk through Sound View parking lots, plowing down fences in their path, as well as other distressing activities.

“I do think it looks terrible to have everything divided up so much and to now have such a small beach. But I also understand people’s reluctance to have people misbehave on their property,” Reemsnyder said. “It’s a shame that people have to put up with bad behavior from other people.”

In the fall of 2016, The Miami Beach Association elected to erect a chain-link fence along what its leaders say is the boundary between Sound View Beach and what they say is their private beach. Citing a "significant increase in the inappropriate behavior by persons using the beach in violation of community beach rules and regulations," the association also hired security staff in the summer of 2017 and has continued to charge a $10 "clean beach fee" for those wanting to come onto Miami Beach but do not live in Old Lyme.

The association currently faces a civil lawsuit filed by Sound View homeowners, with a hearing scheduled later this month, alleging that the Miami Beach Association is interfering with the public's right of access to the beach in direct violation of a 1953 court order and does not have the authority to charge fees to the public for use of the public beach.

Further explaining that, Reemsnyder said Tuesday that the entire length of Sound View and Miami beaches are supposed to remain open, as was spelled out by Hilliard in his original deed. Kokomo’s won’t face the same legal challenges, however, as its piece of land was not included in the deed, she said.

Last Sunday, as the beach filled with patrons looking to relax and have a good time, Sound View seasonal residents and visitors couldn’t help but notice the new borders splitting up their favorite beach.

While sitting out on the front lawn of his Hartford Avenue cottage Sunday, Charlie Bon Giovi said that while he did not feel personally afflicted by the new fence, he did feel that it aired a certain sense of exclusivity out of place within the Sound View community, which he said is known for and proud of its open and fun atmosphere. He also lamented that the beach, which he’s been visiting since 1957, is now not as open as it once was.

"Now the only public beach is right here and now you have to pay to get onto the other ones," he said.

Mike Jennings of Branford, who said he’s been visiting Sound View every summer for the last 40 years, agreed while sitting with his girlfriend on Pavilion’s very crowded and lively beach Sunday.

“You bring the family here with your kids and you’re not supposed to spend any money to get on a beach,” Jennings said. “They should just let it be the way it used to be. Now you’re packing everyone in here.”

Speaking to the evolution of the beach over the years, Pavilion manager Stephanie Livesey said Thursday that though the Kokomo’s fence is “disappointing,” she understood the reasoning behind it.

“I can’t say, ‘Oh, I can’t believe that they are doing this,’ because there are issues for why they wanted it,” she said. “It’s the bad behavior and lewd acts, and who wants to experience that while eating outside?”

Explaining that the Pavilion will continue to keep its beach freely open to the public, Livesey said she and former Lenny’s manager Lenny Corto has for years collaborated to keep their strips open — in line with the beach’s original deed — but with unrestrictive rope and fence posts marking their property lines for security purposes.

The beach "is getting chopped apart. But also, over the years, people have been led to believe that this whole stretch in front of Pavilion and Lenny’s was public, that the beach was all of Sound View,” Livesey said. “But it’s not. So I think this just feels like a change, but it was always private.”

m.biekert@theday.com