EDITORIAL: Trustees, obey the law, not a king

Memo to the Board of Trustees of Southampton: OK, the king of England gave you power over the land beneath the town's waters. But you forgot two itsy-bitsy details: the Revolutionary War and our state constitution. So you really do have to obey state environmental law.

The trustees see their grant from the crown, the Dongan Patent of 1686, as proof that they're some sort of sovereign, floating free above state law. So they did no review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act before granting a permit to expand a marina on Shinnecock Bay. In response, an environmental watchdog group, Peconic Baykeeper, sued.

In research, the group's attorney, Lauren Stiles, looked back at the state's first constitution, a cheeky 1777 document filled with anti-king invective. It allowed the trustees to exercise power "until otherwise directed by the Legislature." By adopting SEQRA in 1976, the legislature did just that, imposing new, binding environmental review requirements.

Now State Supreme Court Justice John J.J. Jones Jr. has found that the trustees are an agency subject to SEQRA. His ruling is a major victory for the coastal waters of our fragile Island. It's also a reminder that we should be looking for better ways to manage coastal development - the California Coastal Commission is a good model - not loopy shortcuts.

In this case, as in the Revolutionary War, the final score is: Colonists 1, King 0. hN