Once and for All

There’s an irony that Southampton Town officials might have the least power when it comes to the travel plaza featuring tax-free gasoline that is going up on Shinnecock Nation property in Hampton Bays — but also might be most at fault for the current situation.

Neighbors are incensed that the nation is building the gas station off Sunrise Highway with seemingly little oversight. The Environmental Protection Agency has stepped forward to provide a framework for the sovereign Shinnecock Nation’s project, but also has allowed the nation to proceed mostly on pledges to follow EPA rules. A new development with thousands of gallons of gasoline on site will be on top of a sole-source aquifer, not far from the Shinnecock Canal and two bays, and it seems the property will be lined with promises alone.

All of this is based on the wobbly legal status of the Westwoods property. Is it aboriginal Shinnecock land? Without question, in the broadest sense. But legally? The answer simply isn’t that clear. A 2007 ruling suggested that the town was right — the land is not sovereign land, and thus is subject to local control — but that ruling was overturned on appeal, based on a technicality that the matter should not have been in federal court to begin with.

This remains, for all intents and purposes, an open question — and it absolutely must be resolved. The town should have taken steps to get a final, clear and conclusive ruling — which probably meant planting a legal flag months ago. Simply posting a stop-work order was meaningless; considering the ambiguity that exists, the Shinnecock are under no obligation to respect it. This is a much bigger legal dispute that cries out for a resolution, and it’s up to the town to demand one.

Town officials appear to want to avoid taking an adversarial stance, which has been the town’s default position for far too long — and that’s not unreasonable. The town and nation have begun to build some bridges, and there’s no reason to revert to open hostilities. But this legal quagmire over Westwoods remains unresolved, and that’s untenable, with such a transformative proposal for that site (not to mention the renewed possibility that a gaming facility on the bluff overlooking Peconic Bay might be coming soon).

If the Shinnecock have the correct legal position, the Westwoods property — which, no argument, was only taken out of the nation’s hands briefly, and fraudulently, in the 1800s — is sovereign land that can be developed as a gas station, and a casino, and whatever else the tribe envisions, local zoning be damned. If it’s a fee-simple title — land owned by the nation, certainly, but lacking aboriginal status in the eyes of the federal government — it significantly limits its development. Either way, the public has a right to know more about the nature of the project, the protections planned for the environment and for neighbors, and a clearer picture of how the project will unfold.

The total lack of clarity around the status of the land ownership at Westwoods, and seemingly no urgency to resolve it, is the primary issue — and Southampton Town officials have to prioritize settling the dispute, once and for all. Sitting back and hoping for the best is not an option.