The Town of Southampton cuts a deal with developers, risking the future of land use across the East End

The Hills, a highly contested private residential luxury golf resort by Discovery Land Corporation, is being constructed in Southampton Town’s fragile aquifer-protection overlay district in East Quogue.

For more than a decade, the Group has fought to uphold the residential zoning within the district, which was specifically designed to minimize development, preserve the quality of the drinking water, and protect its unique pine barren habitat and wildlife.

Despite ongoing litigation from the Group, neighbors, and the Town of Southampton, The Hills has remained under construction.

In August 2026, the Southampton Town Board abandoned its own litigation against the developer—undermining the Group’s own litigation— and entered into a settlement with Discovery Land. The agreement included an unsettling $11.5 million payment to the town, nearly 200 additional golf memberships, a trailhead, a few charity events, some public parking, and a 35-acre parcel for an undefined town use. The payout alone pales in comparison to the project’s initial proposal—which included tens of millions of dollars in additional public benefits—while the developers received everything they wanted and more.

The settlement also requires the town to rezone the property as a mixed-use planned development district (MUPDD). This zoning category was specifically stricken by unanimous vote of the town board in 2017 due to its well-documented benefits to developers at the expense of the public.

The golf resort’s intensive land use will forever change the site’s expansive tract of pine barrens habitat, greatly increase water consumption, and increase the potential for water supply contamination. And, the settlement accepted by the Town of Southampton sets a dangerous precedent across the region as the financial resources of developers grow and undeveloped land becomes increasingly scarce. Every East End municipality should expect more aggressive efforts to undo decades of planning, zoning, and land-use policies that have protected both the environment and community character.

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