Golf At The Bridge Hearing

Opponents of the controversial Golf at the Bridge development, citing the threat of contaminated drinking water, urged the Southampton Town Planning Board to deny the application at a hearing last Thursday.

"This is a no-brainer," said John Anderson. "Golf courses poison the water. They can't help it."

Mr. Anderson, who lives next to the Noyac Golf Club, said he spoke from experience. Pesticides used at that course have contaminated his 180-foot-deep well, forcing him to install a costly filter system, he said.

Atop The Aquifer

"This is a lousy place to put a golf course," agreed Larry Penny, East Hampton Town's natural resources director and a Noyac resident, of Robert Rubin's proposal to build an 18-hole golf course on the site of the Bridgehampton Race Circuit off Millstone Road.

"This is the prime aquifer for the South Fork."

Mr. Penny said the course would require the annual application of over 56,000 pounds of fertilizers alone, which he said was eight times the amount 200 homeowners would use.

"Essentially, there is no way that this stuff is not going to get into our private wells," he said.

He told the board to disregard the arguments made by Mr. Rubin's attorney, William Esseks, and his engineer, John Raynor, that a change of zone granted by the Southampton Town Board effectively limited the scope of the Planning Board's review.

"You're not obligated to say this is a good plan," said Mr. Penny.

In January 1996, after a series of hotly contested public hearings, the Town Board changed the zoning of the 516-acre tract from mostly five-acre residential to "quasi-public service-use district," making the golf course a legal use of the property.

The Planning Board, however, retains the authority to review site plans and subdivision applications.

Layout, Clearing

"We're not here to discuss whether or not this is an appropriate use on this property," said Mr. Raynor. "That discussion was already decided."

Mr. Raynor said an environmental impact statement submitted to the Town Board, which included guidelines for turf management and pesticide use, answered concerns of potential groundwater contamination.

He urged the Planning Board to limit the hearing to the layout and clearing plans for the course.

Plans for a clubhouse and 20-lot subdivision will be considered separately by the board.

Farmers Do It

The golf course site plan "must be a good one," said Mr. Esseks late in the hearing. "No one said a word about it."

He argued that the course would pose less harm to the groundwater than farming and its unregulated use of chemicals.

"The public policy of the Town of Southampton, for better or worse, is to protect farming," he said. When farmers work their land, "they put fertilizers and pesticides on it, and we applaud that. But people come to a meeting like this and say, how can we do this? I don't understand the hypocrisy."

"Pandora's Box"

But Jean Lane of Sag Harbor said the Town Board had "opened a Pandora's box" by granting the zone change.

"What we're dealing with is an attack on the aquifer protection overlay district," she said. "The taxpayers may end up getting invited to a party for which they will get the bill."

Mr. Rubin said he was "deeply committed" to the golf course project and that he was tired of subsidizing a race track which the public does not want, through annual property tax payments of $150,000.

"From bitter experience over what is now 15 years, I have concluded there is no basis for continuing racing," he said.

Not For Sale

Mr. Rubin has long complained that the town noise ordinance, which bans unmuffled racing, makes it impossible for the track to turn a profit.

Mr. Rubin also chided racing enthusiasts who have sought to buy the track from him. "I find myself asking what part of the phrase 'the property is not for sale' don't you understand?" he said.

Nevertheless, some racers continued to hold out hope. Guy Frost of East Hampton, a member of the Bridgehampton Heritage Racing Group, called the golf course plan an environmental hazard that would poison the water and destroy the landscape.

"We Will Stop It"

Mr. Rubin's premise that "racing is no longer acceptable" has been accepted "unconditionally" with no discussions of whether the noise ordinance could be relaxed, Mr. Frost said.

As for public acquisition of the land, Mr. Rubin ruled that out. "I'm not interested in pursuing it," he said. "If an effort is made to acquire it through condemnation, I would oppose the process as vigorously as I could."

Ralph Siano of Bridgehampton said opposition to the golf plan would be just as strong.

"There are thousands of us, and we will lie down in front of the bulldozers," he said. "As time goes on, you will see more of a groundswell. We will stop it from happening."

The Future

Mary Beth Green of Southampton urged the Planning Board to think of the future. "I don't believe you want to look back in 15 years and say, dear God, what did we do?"

Allison Rudansky, 12, of Noyac also asked the Planning Board to consider the possible consequences. "Pesticides and other stuff that make the greens look like astroturf will get in the water and we won't be able to swim anymore" in Trout Pond, she told the board.

Allison's father, Daniel Rudansky, an attorney, took issue with Mr. Esseks's statement that a lawsuit he filed with Stacy Kaufman Riveras and other Noyac residents to overturn the zone change had been dismissed.

The suit was dismissed only because the group had not filed it properly with the Suffolk County Clerk's office, an oversight that would be corrected, he said.