East Quogue golf, resi development nears approval

A controversial golf course and residential project in East Quogue is on the verge of being approved, the Southampton Press reports.

The developers say the law allows for 118 housing units, an 18-hole private golf course and other recreational facilities on the 588-acre site, of which 65 percent of which would be preserved as open space.

But environmentalists and other critics call the project inappropriate for the site. Special approvals are needed because it is in the Central Pine Barrens Overlay District and an aquifer protection area.

The Lewis Road Residential Planned Development — it would get a more marketable name, if built — is near Spinney Road and runs north to Sunrise Highway and beyond.

Approval by the Central Pine Barrens Commission seems likely, according to the newspaper, because three of its five members support the project — and one of the two who doesn’t, Carrie Meek Gallagher, just resigned to become executive deputy commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s appointee Dorian Dale, Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar and Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman all supported preliminary approval of the project last fall.

It’s the largest project ever considered by the panel. Attempts to develop the land date back to 2004.

[Southampton Press] — Erik Engquist