Southampton Town Supervisor Will Seek More Environmental Concessions For 'The Hills'

“The Hills at Southampton,” a luxury golf course development slated to be built in East Quogue, needs three votes in a pending vote to move forward, but it’s currently without one key vote—the town supervisor’s.

Jay Schneiderman said this week that he is still concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the development. To gain his vote to approve the draft environmental impact statement—the next step in consideration of the special zoning, a planned development district, that Discovery Land Company needs to build its resort on nearly 600 acres—the supervisor said he needs to feel comfortable that the environmental impact of granting the PDD would be demonstrably better than the as-of-right options for developing the site.

“If it’s modified to be better in every category than the as of right, there is no reason not to approve it,” Mr. Schneiderman said of the PDD. “I think most people understand that. The way it was proposed, it did not meet my standards—and I would have had to vote no. But if there is a way to modify it, it would be tough to say no.”

Mr. Schneiderman said he will go back to Discovery Land with an unofficial list of concerns, focusing on the nitrogen impact on the groundwater beneath the site and limits on the amount of pesticides used on the land. Specifically, he said he has some concerns about the fertigation process—the way the Arizona-based developer behind the project plans to reuse water contaminated with nitrogen, pesticides and other chemicals to irrigate the proposed 18-hole golf course.

The supervisor said he hopes to put added restrictions—in addition to those enforced by the state—on the types of pesticides that can be used on the property. He is also looking into the possibility of having the developer go completely “pesticide free” in areas of the golf course outside of the fairways.

“This is the [criteria] that I will use to evaluate this request,” Mr. Schneiderman said of the PDD. He added that other potential “public benefits” offered by Discovery Land will not be part of his evaluation: “I will not consider external factors like scholarships ... I will not consider any of that.”

Mark Hissey, vice president of Discovery Land, said he is aware of some of Mr. Schneiderman’s concerns and would be willing to update the project in the final DEIS to address his requests.

“In my opinion, I don’t believe there are any huge issues we can’t address right now.” Mr. Hissey said. “… I don’t foresee anything major that is going to come up out of the blue. We are all comfortable with where the science is.”

In its proposal, Discovery Land is seeking to build 118 homes—95 single-family homes, 13 clubhouse cabins and 10 clubhouse condominiums—and an 18-hole golf course on 168 acres along Spinney Road in East Quogue. The remaining land will be preserved as open space, according to the application.

Presently, the land is zoned to require 5-acre residential building lots—the strictest such requirement in the municipality.

If the Town Board ultimately votes down the project, the developer can seek approvals from the Planning Board to build an as-of-right residential development without a golf course. Discovery Land’s proposal on those terms still calls for the construction of 118 units, but doesn’t require community benefits mandated by the PDD law.

The DEIS for The Hills was deemed complete by the town in October 2016. After that, the town held a series of four public hearings—which lasted at least four hours each—to allow the community to share their support or concerns with the proposal with the Town Board.

Though there were many who spoke repeatedly at the four hearings, Mr. Schneiderman estimates there were nearly 200 different individuals who spoke about the project. He said it was arguably the most comments he ever received on a single project in his political career.

“I’ve never seen so much on any project,” Mr. Schneiderman said of the response. “The fact that we held about four meetings and each went for four hours—that’s unprecedented.”

The public hearing was completed at the end of the February 7 meeting, though town officials agreed to keep it open until March 9 for written comments. The written comments still continued pouring in, and at the end of February the town voted to allow residents to continue to submit written comments to the town on the DEIS up until April 1.

After the comment period is closed, the final environmental impact statement for The Hills proposal would then need to be filed within 45 days of April 2. An actual vote on the PDD proposal itself is later in the process. The support of four of the five Town Board members, known as a super-majority, is required for the PDD to earn final approval.

As Mr. Schneiderman and the rest of the Town Board thumbs through the comments, they are giving special consideration to people who will be most affected by the golf course: East Quogue residents. “The people in the East Quogue area—I have to look most closely in that community, no doubt,” the supervisor said.

Though the environmental aspects of the project are high on Mr. Schneiderman’s priority list, the developer also has to earn a “check mark” next to several other important criteria on the supervisor’s list. Some of the other items on his list include how much clearing there will be, what the density will look like, the number of jobs the development would provide, how it would affect property taxes, how it would impact the local school district, what police costs and other costs to the town it would add, and traffic impacts.