Letters

In a letter to the Pine Barrens Commission arguing against a proposed 600-acre golf course resort in East Quogue known as the Lewis Road Planned Residential Development, or PRD, I recommended that the commission create a task force to pursue an independent investigation into the Lewis Road corridor. Here’s why.

Three PRDs were created opposite Discovery Land’s Lewis Road PRD. These PRDs are adjacent to one another, rising up from Lewis Road. This letter is about the PRD closest to Lewis Road. All of the following is documented and archived.

The property in question was owned by a local real estate businessman. This businessman sold the land to a second real estate businessman who filed an application to create a residential subdivision. When the subdivision was one step from final approval, the businessman filed an application to operate a horse farm.

After he received approval to operate a farm, he gave interviews to different papers, including the Long Island section of The New York Times, in which he indicated that he was operating a club. But he didn’t file an application to operate a club. Therefore, by formal resolution on file in Southampton’s Planning Department, the real estate businessman was told to stop any activity for which he didn’t apply and for which he didn’t receive approval.

The club moved to Bridgehampton and filed an application to operate a club. The Bridgehampton application was rejected because it was felt that activity was inappropriate. The club sued, and the courts granted the club the right to operate.

The club had standing by virtue of filing an accurate application. The East Quogue businessman did not have standing and therefore could not operate a club. The East Quogue real estate businessman sold the farm to a third local real estate businessman, a builder who had no interest in farming. However the builder filed an application to create a PRD that allowed him to divide the property into a housing subdivision and create a smaller horse farm that could be unbundled from the housing and sold separately.

An application must accurately reflect the intention of an applicant. Discovery Land filed an application to build a PRD. Wayne Bruyn, the lawyer for Discovery Land, was employed by Southampton’s Planning Department when the East Quogue horse farm applications were submitted. So he’s somewhat familiar with land use on the Lewis Road corridor.

Therefore, it would not have been improper for the Pine Barrens Commission to question whether Discovery Land conformed to the rules governing a PRD. If it was determined that Discovery Land didn’t conform, then Discovery Land wouldn’t have had standing.

Susan Cerwinski

East Quogue