The Southampton Town Board has adopted a final scoping document for the Hills at Southampton, a proposed luxury golf development in East Quogue on the largest remaining undeveloped tract on the South Fork.
The ruling means that environmental review of the project will move forward. The scoping document, which was adopted by the board on Tuesday afternoon, will be used as a guideline for a draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, and includes dozens of requirements from the Town Board for the project to even be considered.
Areas to be studied include zoning, community benefits, design and layout, water resources and ecology, among others.
As part of the environmental review, the town will require that the developers evaluate not only all of the fields named in the scoping document but also what would be allowed by current, as-of-right zoning, and also by a design that clusters development on a portion of the property to create more open space elsewhere on the land.
The Hills at Southampton would require a proposed mixed-use planned development district, or PDD, a special overlay zoning designation that allows uses and densities not permitted by current zoning. The plan calls for the construction of 118 homes—95 single-family homes, 13 clubhouse cabins and 10 clubhouse condominium units—and an 18-hole golf course.
The project is located just north of Lewis Road near Spinney Road, and extends north of Sunrise Highway. The developers, the Discovery Land Company of Arizona, are looking to combine several East Quogue properties, 431.3 acres of which they already own, as well as an additional 163.2 acres they are in contract to buy, for a total of 594.5 acres. The housing and golf course would be clustered on 168.1 acres, while the remaining land would be left as open space and natural vegetation.
Erin McKinley on Jul 15, 2015