Letters

Southampton Town will soon take up a critical proposal to close the town’s nonconforming sand mines and support the longstanding environmental goals of the town’s Comprehensive Plan. There is likely to be some drama, but here is what your readers need to know.

First, from its first Comprehensive Plan in 1970, to this day, Southampton Town has made the protection of natural resources, groundwater reserves, open spaces and community character an enduring priority.

Second, through the years, development densities have been reduced, watershed and agricultural land protections have been added, clearing requirements have been adopted, and potentially hazardous industrial uses have been restricted or prohibited from sensitive environmental areas. Overall, the town has moved largely in the right direction, but the work is far from done.

For example, although, decades ago, town zoning prohibited sand mining in vulnerable water supply areas, several mines have remained “active” for decades despite no longer being a permitted use.

Third, despite Southampton Town’s efforts to finally close these facilities, closure literally has been obstructed by New York State, which stridently took the position that the town’s prohibition on expanded mining was not binding on the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation’s permitting authority.

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 either the vertical or horizontal expansion of mines.

Fourth, despite the high court’s ruling, the DEC is still failing to direct those mines that can no longer expand to begin site reclamation and revegetate the open scars that such uses leave as a direct conduit for contamination into the underlying aquifer.

With DEC apparently content to do nothing, the responsibility for protecting our aquifer now falls to Southampton Town.

If passed, this law will close the remaining mines that exist in Southampton Town, within a year. However, mine owners may appeal for further consideration by the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which, after due consideration of each site’s remaining, and permitted, sand reserves, may consider use extensions for up to seven years.

Finally, readers should understand that the concept of “amortizing” nonconforming uses is a longstanding tool which has been used locally and provides municipalities with the authority to bring land uses into compliance with town zoning, while preserving underlying land values consistent with present zoning.

For the above reasons, we strongly support the proposed amortization legislation as the most effective strategy to bring a small but significant number of potentially harmful land uses into compliance and begin a land restoration process that is many years overdue.

Robert S. DeLuca

President

Group for the East End