Southampton's planning board has been slapped with a lawsuit over plans to build a luxury golf resort in the Pine Barrens.

Group for the East End, along with the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, East Quogue Civic Association, and several local residents joined forces to file the suit.

The suit is filed with the Suffolk County Supreme Court against the Town of Southampton Planning Board and the Arizona-based development company Discovery Land Company.

The lawsuit is in response to a recent Southampton Town Planning Board decision that would allow the construction of an expansive multi-use, 130-unit luxury golf resort development on the largest parcel of unprotected pine barrens land left in Southampton Town.

The fate of the 600-acre parcel at the headwaters of Weesuck Creek, in already-impaired waters of Western Shinnecock Bay, has been the subject of conflict and controversy for nearly a decade.

In 2015, the Discovery Land Company first sought to build the resort complex through a zone change that would have legally allowed the mixed-use resort development to be constructed on the parcel, which is currently located in Southampton Town’s most highly restricted residential zoning.

After losing its original bid to overturn town zoning and develop the resort complex, known as The Hills at Southampton, in late 2017, the developers regrouped and attempted to gain approval for a nearly identical project, now known as The Lewis Road Planned Residential Development (PRD), submitted in 2018.

The resort complex project was applied for under the town’s existing zoning after developers declared the project’s proposed 18-hole golf course, spa, restaurant, health club, pools, courts, 10,000-square-foot retail store, and numerous other commercial amenities, as customary accessories to a permitted residential subdivision of the property.

Hundreds of community members attended numerous hearings on the project over the last several years to challenge the prior and latest proposals.

“It’s a sad irony that New York State law specifically provides the opportunity to challenge questionable government decisions in a timely fashion, but if the public can never secure the standing it needs to be heard in court, the law is hardly worth the paper it’s written on,” says Group for the East End president, Bob DeLuca.