Public hearing set for proposed golf course, housing in East Quogue

A public hearing on a controversial East Quogue golf course is once again on the agenda in Southampton Town, this time before the zoning board of appeals.

Discovery Land, the Arizona-based developer behind the golf community known as The Hills, filed a pre-application with the town planning board in December two weeks after the town board rejected its original proposal. The pre-application, filed under the name Lewis Road Planned Residential District, calls for 118 seasonal residential units, a private golf course and amenities. It also includes a substitute plan calling for 137 residential units for seasonal use with 13 year-round workforce housing units but no golf course, although Discovery representatives said the company would prefer the 118-unit plan.

Critics have decried the plan saying the environmentally sensitive pine barrens is not an appropriate location for a golf course.

The planning board earlier this year issued a report on the pre-application outlining questions over whether or not the golf course would constitute a secondary primary use of the property or an accessory use, as the developer has argued.

The pre-application has now been sent to the town’s zoning board of appeals to determine if a golf course could be considered an accessory use under town code, meaning it would not require a variance. The project will ultimately require planning board approval.

A hearing is set for 7 p.m. July 19, at Southampton Town Hall, 116 Hampton Rd.