A fight over access to a Hamptons beach is intensifying this summer, pitting wealthy homeowners seeking a serene oceanfront view against residents who want to drive trucks onto the sand.

Protests against a court order prohibiting people from driving on a roughly 4,000-foot oceanfront stretch of East Hampton known locally as “Truck Beach” could take place as soon as this weekend, a local fishermen says.

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“We’ve caught a lot of fish on that beach, and I’m not going to stop doing it now because somebody doesn’t want to look at trucks,” said Danny Lester, a fisherman whose family for generations has worked the waters off this far southeastern part of Long Island, about 100 miles east of New York City. “If they stop us at the entrance and lock us up, so be it. We’re going down there, come hell or high water.”

The town has been fighting with the homeowners’ groups for 12 years, arguing that all residents should be allowed public access to the beach, including with vehicles. But town officials said the court’s temporary restraining order gives them no choice but to arrest or cite anyone who trespasses on the beach with a vehicle this summer season.

“We’re going to do whatever we have to to be in compliance with the judge’s order,” said East Hampton Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc. “We have no choice but to enforce the trespass law.”

The Town of East Hampton said it would enforce a judge’s order that bars vehicles on the disputed beach.

The Town of East Hampton said it would enforce a judge’s order that bars vehicles on the disputed beach.

Photo: Danny Lester

Stephen Angel, a lawyer for the homeowners’ groups, declined to comment on the pending case or fishermen possibly driving onto the beach. He said only that the lawsuit is between the homeowners’ groups and the Town of East Hampton—not those who come to fish.

The case stems from a land sale by East Hampton to a wealthy New Yorker in 1882. The sale included a section of beach in one of the town’s hamlets, Amagansett.

The sale included a provision that allowed for local people to freely fish at the beach, but made no mention of vehicles being allowed or prohibited. For generations, local residents brought wagons and later trucks to the beach for fishing and recreation. At least some of the trucks over the years were used to launch fishing crews’ boats into the surf.

Several decades ago, the large property was divided into smaller plots and sold for developments of high-end homes. Beginning in 1991, the town sold permits for residents to drive and park on the beach.

Then homeowners’ associations on the developed land objected to the trucks during the summers, and in 2009 they filed a lawsuit against the town, arguing the vehicles were trespassing. In 2016, a New York State Supreme Court said that town residents have some rights to the land under the 1882 sale, but in February of this year, the New York state appellate division ruled that the land sale allowed for locals to fish on the beach, but vehicles could be blocked. A lower-court judge ordered in June that the town prohibit vehicles on the beach while the case was being appealed, otherwise it could be held in contempt.

A current sign posted at the entrance to the beach mentions the court decision and states the area is “private property, no vehicles allowed.”

Mr. Lester, 48 years old, said his family has gone down to the beach to launch their fishing boats, but also to join other locals on summer weekends to relax and meet friends.

“It’s what we’ve been doing forever,” he said. “East Hampton isn’t East Hampton any more. It’s just Manhattan east as far as I’m concerned.”

Daniel Rodgers, the fishermen’s lawyer, said locals planned to bring vehicles onto the beach despite the restraining order. “We are going to engage in acts of disobedience throughout the summer,” he said. “We are just not going to stop.”

Mr. Van Scoyoc, the town supervisor, said the town didn’t want to enforce the court order and planned to continue fighting for vehicles to be allowed on the beach.

If the town ultimately loses the case, seeking the property through eminent domain or condemnation are “very distinct possibilities,” he said.

Write to Cameron McWhirter at cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com