Local Resident Requests Planning Board Hearing Venue Change to Westchester

A Sag Harbor resident recently asked the Southampton Town Planning Board to recuse itself on a request by the Noyac Golf Club to sanction illegal acts they committed when they cleared four acres of woodland behind his house in order to build a garbage dump along with an outhouse.

A Planning Board hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. at Southampton Town Hall to discuss the issue, but resident Bill Kirrane has requested that the hearing be conducted by the Planning Department in Westchester County.

He claims he would not be able to get a ”fair hearing before any entity of the Town of Southampton”, according to a former request he wrote.

In 2012, the golf course bulldozed four acres of land surrounding to course, directly abutting Kirrane’s property line, to build a dump site, without advising any local residents.

In July 2012, Kirrane spoke at a Town Council meeting, stating that clearing the woodland was in clear violation of an Open Air Conservation Easement and Town codes, and was reassured by two council members that they would “look into it and get back to him”, but have not to this day, according to his request.

The golf course receives $407,000 in annual real estate tax reduction in exchange for a promise to keep the land in its original condition.

Kirrane claims that he does not know any of the Town officials and has no reason to doubt the local government officials are all ‘honorable public servants’, according to former request.

However, he is concern that the members of the club, which has an initiation fee of $250,000, are among the ”rich and powerful” and since their identities remain anonymous, there is a possibility that the government officials are members, he writes in his request.

He also says that even if the officials are not direct members of the club, some officials might have a close relationship to a member of the club or believes that members of the club might have contributed to political campaigns in Southampton elections, which is why his is asking that the matter be decided by the ‘proper governmental department’ in Westchester County.

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