A very large group of local residents, and supporters for The Hills resort community proposed by Discovery Land Company recently attended the first public meeting to learn more about the exciting new project.  About 400 people [300+ in support of the project] listened in, including: Mayor Peter Sartorius of Quogue, coastal engineer Aram Terchunian, Laura Fabrizio of the Moriches Bay Project, Bruce Tria of WRIV radio, and former Southampton Town Supervisor, Skip Heaney. The Discovery Land Company team provided a fully comprehensive presentation of the The Hills project which included grids, graphs, researched statistics, and digital imagery of how the proposed homes and golf course will be designed.

Known as the premier player in the high-end resort residential niche, with 20 world-class projects in its portfolio, Discovery Land Company specializes in building luxury private club communities and resorts in the United States, the Bahamas, and Mexico. Discovery communities are distinct with their own themes and architectural styles inspired by the natural environment and traditions of the project’s locale,

KDHamptons is lending our full support to this project which will only benefit our community.  I encourage readers to check out the hearing highlights below, and please join me at the next public hearing, which will be held on Monday Dec. 5th, at 5:30 PM at East Quogue Elementary School to learn more about the The Hills.

KEY TAKE AWAY POINTS FROM THE MEETING INCLUDED:

• The Hills will be a membership-based seasonal resort (April – October) with 95 homes, 13 club cabins, 10 condos in the clubhouse and a state of the art golf course

• The Hills permanently preserves 72% of the land or 424 acres in East Quogue

• The Hills protects and improves area water quality through technology and innovation

• The seasonal resort development pays significant taxes ($4.5M) but does not add stress to the local school district as it will have no full-time residents

• The Hills will employ 100 FULL TIME seasonal employees and 20 FULL TIME YEAR ROUND positions, with a goal of employing area locals

• The Hills will hire local contractors for the build out and support the resort development

• The Hills resort is tightly managed and controlled by Southampton Town

The land is currently zoned for residential use with 1 unit per 5 acres which would permit 118 single-family homes in a regular subdivision with standard Hampton style lawns and limited restrictions on development. The Hills development will preserve 72% of the land. The Hills will revegetate an additional 33 acres for a total of 457 acres in a natural state and 90 acres will be devoted for the proposed golf course.  Ninety-five percent of the land will be kept as open space, with only five percent of the land with roads or structures.

Discovery Land Company has a “focus on family” philosophy, and their residents enjoy being part of an heirloom community that can be enjoyed by many generations.  Discovery communities embrace the family and design activities that bring families together.  One of the greatest anchors of the East Quogue community is FAMILY.  Seeing all of the passionate moms who turned out for the meeting [and also spoke] highlighted the impact that Discovery’s committed contribution to the school system would make. East Quogue mom Nicole Aldrich, who has a son in the third grade at East Quogue Elementary, shared her emotional story about Julian’s complicated case of epilespy, having up to 100 seizures a day sometimes. He needs a one-on-one trained aid at school who could handle a child with a disability,  but due to budget constraints and lack of resources the school was unable to provide a solution until another child moved out of the East Quogue district, resulting in an aid becoming available.  Aldrich made a heartfelt appeal to the crowd to approve the project, and accept the beneficent contributions that Discovery Land Company has offered to East Quogue, many of which would help her son directly.  The proposed contributions are listed below:

The Hills Master Plan Diagram, below, shows the resort is clustered in the center where the land has already been cleared. Golf holes also follow cleared areas. All areas in light green are left in a natural state or are revegetated.

One of the most revelatory and positive aspects of the presentation to those in attendance was the fact that local Nitrogen levels would actually be LOWERED from local ground water by building a new golf course. There is high nitrogen/nutrient content in area ground water already, The Hills golf course would act as one big bio-filter that can take up excess nitrogen thereby purifying local ground water.  The Hills team knows exactly where to intercept this nutrient-rich ground water before it travels to Weesuck Creek, and using water from the irrigation intercept well, will remove the equivalent of the waste water of 40 homes every year, in addition to all of the units at The Hills seasonal resort.

To recap, Discovery Land Company CEO, Mike Meldman [above] tells KDHamptons, “Over 100 full-time equivalent jobs will be created through the development of The Hills. We hope to fill these jobs locally and see no reason why that won’t be accomplished. As part of the application, economic data has been produced and verified by the Town of Southampton and it shows that this should be an unprecedented boost to the community. In addition, we will commit over $1.5 million in water quality improvement initiatives, approximately $1 million in benefits to the East Quogue School, donating four acres of land for a new Suffolk County Water Authority well field, and over $700k in infrastructure improvements to the downtown East Quogue hamlet.”

The next public hearing will be held on MONDAY, DECEMBER 5 AT 5:30 PM at EAST QUOGUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, LOCATED at 6 CENTRAL AVENUE, EAST QUOGUE, NY 11942.  Please join me there to learn more about this exciting project and have the chance to ask any questions you may have for the Discovery Land Company team. See you there! Also be sure to follow @thehillsineastquogue on Instagram HERE or visit The Hills website HERE