Shinnecock file legal action to lay claim to $1.2M waterfront property in Southampton

The Shinnecock Indian Nation has initiated legal action to lay claim to a residential property adjacent to its Southampton reservation after the $1.2 million waterfront parcel was listed for sale and considered for purchase by Southampton Town.

The property, at 4 Landing Lane in Southampton, is beside the property at 2 Landing Lane on the northwest boundary of the Shinnecock Nation’s ancestral land, which had been the subject of a 1997 court case won by the tribe.

Separately this week, the Town of Southampton, responding to Newsday inquiries, acknowledged it has issued five notices of violation for properties allegedly encroaching on the Shinnecock Nation’s Westwoods territory. The tribe, which is locked in an escalating series of legal battles with the town, first raised the issue of encroachment at a town board meeting this summer.

The Shinnecock’s claim to the property stems from a 1997 court case in which William Pell, a local marina owner, bought a half-acre parcel from a developer five years before for $65,000. When he began clearing the land adjacent to the Shinnecock reservation, tribal members protested and the case went to court.

Judge John J. Jones Jr. of Suffolk County Court in Riverhead ruled that ''most, if not all'' of the contested parcel belonged to the Shinnecocks, according to media reports at the time. The state Appellate Division upheld the ruling in 1998.

Tela Troge, an attorney and Shinnecock member, said the 1997 decision on the 2 Landing Lane property raised questions about not just that property, which is now held by the tribe, but others on that street as well, leaving it up to the tribe to litigate each in the future.

"It's clearly on Shinnecock territory," said Troge, noting the 1997 case did not settle the broader issue of tribal boundaries. 

But Naomi Kleinhandler, the executor of the family that is the recorded owner of the parcel in Suffolk County’s system and the listed real estate agent for the property, denied the legitimacy of any Shinnecock claim for the parcel.

"That is not their property," she said by phone Monday. "It’s a mistake and they can’t decide they’re going to say this is their property. This area was deeded many, many years ago" to the residents who own homes there.

Kleinhandler acknowledged there was a "piece of property that was carved out for the Indians" as a result of the 1997 lawsuit against purchaser William Pell. "That was it. Four Landing Lane is not part of that piece."

When the sale of 4 Landing Lane was proposed during a town session this summer, Troge perked up.

"It came up at a committee meeting and I said, 'Absolutely not'" to a potential sale, Troge said.

James Burke, the Southampton Town attorney, said the director of the town’s Community Preservation Fund was contacted earlier this year by the "recorded owner of the property" to consider a possible purchase.

"The town did have some interest and the town Community Preservation Fund advisory board and town board did review it," Burke said in an email.

But at a separate town stewardship committee, representatives of the Peconic Land Trust and the Shinnecock Nation "advised that the nation was possibly going to take action to assert their ownership interest in the property so the town has not taken any further action on the possible acquisition," Burke said.

On the encroachment issue, Burke confirmed five notices of violation to residents around Westwoods were issued in recent weeks by the town’s Public Safety/Code Enforcement Department.

"Clearly that [encroachment] has been going on for years and there’s been no oversight of it by the town code inspectors," Lance Gumbs, vice chairman of the Shinnecock council of trustees, said Tuesday. "It’s clearly theft of land in the hopes we wouldn’t notice it."

The town has filed state and federal court actions to assert its zoning authority over the Westwoods property, where the Shinnecock Nation operates two electronic billboards on Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays and has begun construction for an adjacent gas station/travel plaza. 

Construction of the gas station has been halted by state court order, costing the tribe about $22,000 a day, Shinnecock leaders have testified. The nation has filed suit in federal court to affirm its sole authority over Westwoods, noting the property was established as restricted aboriginal Shinnecock land by the Department of the Interior in December.

Southampton Town, which filed suit to stop construction of the gas station in December, last week filed suit in U.S. Court for the District of Columbia, disputing the federal process that affirmed Westwoods' restricted status.

Residents around Westwoods say they simply want any development at Westwoods to conform to what other properties in the town abide by. 

In an email, Diana Adams, of Hampton Bays, noted the recent rulings in the New York Appellate Division and the New York Supreme Court have "both determined that Westwoods is likely to be subject to state and town oversight," citing a 2007 federal court decision. The ruling was later vacated on appeal. 

Adams said the Shinnecock Nation is "free to develop the land within the constraints of existing zoning. The town is not depriving the nation of economic development, they are just holding the nation to the same zoning requirements that any other developer would be bound by. ... They could develop housing." 

Shinnecock leaders, asserting state courts and town zoning have no authority over their federally restricted sovereign land, say their projects do conform to strict building and environmental codes. 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.