Sand mine in Southampton viewed from entrance with bare trees and a posted sign that says private property_photo from Dan's Papers article

The Southampton Town Board passed a law to phase out nonconforming sand mines in residentially-zoned areas

For more than 50 years, nonconforming sand mines have been operating in residentially-zoned areas in the Town of Southampton. These intensive industrial operations are completely at odds with the town’s careful, decades-long planning efforts on zoning, land use, and public investment. In 1970, the town made the protection of natural groundwater reserves, open spaces, and community character an enduring priority in its first comprehensive plan.

Through the years, the town has added a reduction in development density, watershed and agricultural land protections, clearing requirements, and the restriction of potentially hazardous industrial uses to its long list of goals.

While zoning laws prohibited sand mining in vulnerable water supply areas, several mines have remained active despite no longer being a permitted use. Despite the town’s efforts to close these facilities, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wrongfully attempted to overrule the town’s authority and allow these sand mines to continue operating. After legal battles spanning a decade, the matter was finally resolved in February 2023, when New York State's highest court found the town to be well within its rights to prohibit the expansion of sand mines.

In 2025, the Town of Southampton held hearings to consider this new law that will phase out nonconforming sand mines through a process called amortization.

Amortization is a process that provides mine owners a defined length of time in which they must end operations and begin site reclamation. That time period, ranging between one to seven years, is based on existing permits from New York State. Once reclaimed, mine owners will still have rights on the property that are consistent with current, low-intensity, land use standards. As a result, the town’s drinking water reserves will be better protected, and the character of individual neighborhoods will be better preserved for the future.

On April 8, the Southampton Town Board voted to adopt the law!

The Group applauds the board’s decision for adopting the new sand mine amortization law, and taking the lead in creating a local, rational zoning process for existing non-conforming mines to finally cease operations. This move is consistent with the town’s longstanding and well established land use efforts to protect the future of water quality in the town in the best interest of its community members.