Southampton Town Board Strikes Down The Hills PDD

A planned development district proposal for a luxury golf course resort community in East Quogue was shot down by the Southampton Town Board on Tuesday afternoon.

After years of debate, the five members of the Town Board had to decide whether or not to grant the developer, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company, a PDD—a special change of zone—allowing 118 luxury housing units and an 18-hole golf course on nearly 600 acres in East Quogue.

It was a special vote that called for supermajority support on the board—or the approval of at least four of the five Town Board members.

In the packed auditorium at Southampton Town Hall on Tuesday, with supporters of the project on one side of the room and opponents seated on the other, the vote was cast—3-2 in favor, but one vote short of what was required. Councilwoman Julie Lofstad and Councilman John Bouvier declined to support the PDD application, as they had previously said they would.

Both Ms. Lofstad and Mr. Bouvier explained in separate statements that they have concerns about the development’s environmental impacts.

“It’s not a good project in this location,” Ms. Lofstad said.

“There are so many unknowns,” added Mr. Bouvier, referring especially to the developer’s proposed techniques to both reduce nitrogen pollution and mitigate conditions that already exist in the property’s groundwater.

Both of the Town Board members questioned the fertigation technique, a plan to remove groundwater and use it to irrigate the site, an effort to remove existing nitrogen. They also expressed concern about the development’s potential to pollute the aquifer and noted that a proposed wastewater treatment system, pitched as part of the project, has yet to be approved by Suffolk County.

Aware that their vote was going to disappoint some of the approximately 100 people in the audience that afternoon, as well as members in the community who were not able to make the 1 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Bouvier and Ms. Lofstad both stressed that they spent “hundreds of hours” studying the application. In the end, they agreed that they would prefer to rely on the Southampton Town code, and the site’s existing zoning—which is the most restrictive in the town, requiring 5-acre residential lots—to restrict the alternative to the PDD, a regular housing subdivision without a golf course.

The developer already has filed that alternative 137-unit subdivision plan, which includes 13 affordable housing units. The development also would include other amenities, such as a clubhouse, pool, event lawn, putting course and short game area, boathouse, pond clubhouse, four tennis courts, four pickleball courts, and sports fields.

Now that the PDD proposal was voted down, the developer will be scratching plans to buy and preserve a 33-acre swath on Montauk Highway in East Quogue, owned by Carolyn Parlato. The purchase of the property was part of the PDD proposal and was contingent on the approval of the project. Ms. Parlato has a plan for that property already filed with the Planning Board seeking a 30-unit subdivision.

Mark Hissey, a vice president of Discovery Land Company, and the face of the project locally, could not be reached for an interview on Wednesday morning. During the public portion at Tuesday’s meeting—ahead of the vote—he thanked the council for spending so much time on his application, while pointing to all the ways the Town Board asked him to make the plan better for the environment and the community, which he said he followed exactly.

“You got everything you asked for, and we are happy to partner with you on that,” Mr. Hissey said.

Several of Mr. Hissey’s consultants—including Chic Voorhis, managing partner of Nelson, Pope and Voorhis; Paul Grosser of P.W. Grosser Consultants; and Jeff Seeman, owner of East Quogue Golf Corporation—also spoke during public portion of the meeting, stressing the hard work the developer put in to make the project good for the environment.

“I rarely see a project with such overwhelming support,” Mr. Voorhis said at the podium. “This project is unique because it improves water quality. This is a demonstrated fact.”

The Town Board members who voted in favor of the application—Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, Councilman Stan Glinka and Councilwoman Christine Scalera—all noted in their own statements ahead of the vote that the proposal could have had a positive impact on the East Quogue community.

“The PDD gives us more control about what happens on the property from now until the foreseeable future,” Ms. Scalera said.

All three of the project supporters on the Town Board noted that they believe the PDD would be the best option for the economy, school district and environment.

The PDD law required a plethora of community benefits, which, for this project, included added revenue to the tax rolls, several donations to East Quogue Elementary School, donations to the East Quogue Fire District, upgrades to Main Street, on- and off-site sewage systems, shellfish programs to clean the bays, and the usage of advanced wastewater treatment systems, among other community donations.