UPDATE: Schneiderman Unveils More Details About Proposal To Reroute Tuckahoe Road

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman unveiled more details on Thursday about Shinnecock Hills Golf Club’s proposal to reroute Tuckahoe Road, including the fact that the club would pay for the multi-million dollar project.

At the Town Board’s work session, the supervisor said he wanted to “correct some of the confusion” town residents may have about the proposal, explaining that officials at Shinnecock Hills have been concerned about the amount of commercial traffic on Tuckahoe Road, the town-owned road that bisects the course, as pedestrians cross it often. Mr. Schneiderman added that even though the road is closed down when the club hosts the two-week-long U.S. Open Championship, its officials are proposing to reroute it before the competition takes place there again in 2018.

“They would pay for all of the road improvements, which are expected to cost about $5 million. There’s a lot on the table that they’d like to look at,” he said. “Things like the U.S. Open bring hundreds and thousands of dollars in economic activity to the community. They have been good neighbors. They came to me to start a conversation about if, or if not, that road might be, instead of going through the golf course, routed around the golf course, on their property—basically shifted.”

The proposal, Mr. Schneiderman said earlier this week, involves rerouting Tuckahoe Road so that it connects to St. Andrews Road. On Thursday, however, he noted that the project would also involve extending St. Andrews Road further west to the light at Tuckahoe Road and County Road 39, specifically for people who want to make left turns onto St. Andrews from County Road 39, and vice versa.

“The folks on St. Andrews can actually get to the light, too, because they go under the underpass and to the light. This would allow the right into the circle, but it would also … bring traffic along the southern border of the golf course,” he explained, adding that the proposal would involve adding about 900 feet of road to extend St. Andrews. “It’s a much safer left. The left as you go around that curve … you’re taking your life into your hands.”

The proposal would also include some benefits for the town, such as ambulance preference for the light at Tuckahoe Road and County Road 39, since there are plans for Southampton Hospital to move to the Stony Brook Southampton campus, which sits just off Tuckahoe Road.

Mr. Schneiderman said that after Shinnecock Hills submits a formal proposal—he had said earlier this week that one could come by the end of the month—golf course officials would then be invited to a work session where the idea could be discussed publicly. That discussion would also include officials from the Tuckahoe School District, Southampton Hospital, the State University of New York, and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons—stakeholders that all have some involvement and interest with Tuckahoe and St. Andrews roads.

“We as a Town Board, and the community, will be able to say, ‘OK, this either makes sense, or it doesn’t.’ And if it doesn’t make sense, we won’t do it. If it makes sense, we can move forward with it,” the supervisor said. “Shinnecock Hills has been a good neighbor, and I feel like they deserve to have a request vetted—particularly one that has some significant public safety benefits to it.

“I just encourage the public to wait for the facts. And then if you don’t like it, I’m sure you’ll let me know,” he continued. “But at least let’s get all the information out on the table, because there could be some significant benefits involved with this. It may give us the ability to do some other positive things to reduce taxes in certain ways.”

Southampton Town officials met with a prominent member of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club last week to discuss the prospect of eliminating a stretch of Tuckahoe Road so that it no longer bisects the historic golf course.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as another unnamed representative from the golf club, met with Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and other officials on Friday at Town Hall for about 90 minutes to discuss the matter, according to Mr. Schneiderman.

Shinnecock Hills is preparing to host the U.S. Open Championship in 2018, and there has been a long-standing effort by the club to reroute town-owned Tuckahoe Road—which motorists often use as a scenic route to and from the North Sea area—so that it instead connects to nearby St. Andrews Road.

“They are concerned about the impacts of the town road going through the golf course, and wanted to have a conversation on how that road impacts facilities, and what, if any, measures can be taken to address it,” the supervisor said of Shinnecock Hills. “It was a productive conversation. We’re looking at their concerns carefully.”

Prior to the meeting with Mr. Bloomberg, a member of the club and who owns an estate nearby, the town was exploring ways to improve the intersection of Tuckahoe Road and County Road 39, contingent on the results of a blinking light pilot program that took place there in April to see if eliminating the signal there would help.

The supervisor had previously said he discussed the intersection with Bill Hillman, chief engineer at the County Department of Public Works, who drew up a preliminary concept design for an underpass at County Road 39. The drawing had showed Tuckahoe Road closed off on both sides of County Road 39, as well as several new access points for traffic heading east and west. The underpass would have been west of the intersection, where County Road 39 curves to the right, to avoid the expense of having to run the underpass below the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

The plan would have also involved opening up what is called North Road, a road just north of the Stony Brook Southampton campus and south of the railroad tracks that is currently closed off. Motorists could have accessed County Road 39 and Tuckahoe Road that way, either by ramps or the underpass, depending on which way they were heading.

The plan incorporated Tuckahoe Road, north of County Road 39, as being closed to public access and rerouted to St. Andrews Road instead.

Mr. Schneiderman said last week that the blinking light trial did not yield the results he had hoped for—at least a 10-minute reduction in travel time going through that corridor—but that rerouting Tuckahoe Road was not entirely out of the question.

He declined to offer details this week about what options were discussed at the meeting with Mr. Bloomberg, but said that several suggestions were made.

“They are working on some suggestions that could address their issues, and will be 
bringing those ideas forward within the next few weeks for the town’s consideration,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “I’m expecting a formal request within 
the next couple of weeks … to work together to address their issues.”