On Tuesday, October 13, the Southampton Town Board gave final approval to the code amendments that settle three lawsuits over The Hills, Discovery Land Company's housing development and golf course in East Quogue, as 27east reported. Most of the coverage focused on golf memberships and money. For anyone who walks, runs, or bikes north of Montauk Highway, the part that matters is narrower. The settlement guarantees permanent public passage along Spinney Road, with specific rules, including a 10-foot clear path where the road crosses The Hills. The larger trail network people have been promised does not exist yet. It is a set of deadlines, and the construction window does not open until the Town approves a trail plan.

The strip of land that changed the outcome

The lasting public access traces back to an old sand-mine road. Discovery wanted the Town to abandon Spinney Road, which runs across The Hills property. Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle opposed that, and while his department was researching the road's history, it found a 50-foot strip of Town-owned land running through two holes of the finished golf course and one of the development's larger home lots. 27east's July coverage reported that the strip was a decades-old extension of what is now Serenity Place. The Town had acquired it by eminent domain so the Highway Department could reach a sand mine it used for winter road sanding. The mine has since been abandoned.

McArdle told 27east that his goal "had always been to simply make sure that the public had access to the lands to the north," and he described how the strip came up:

"We were researching the history of Spinney Road when it came to light that there was this strip of land that had somehow been overlooked by the Planning Board and overlooked by Discovery, and all of a sudden it brought them back to the table."

Under the final terms, the Town abandons the unpaved section of Spinney Road that crosses The Hills and sells Discovery the strip for $10 million. In return, Discovery grants permanent public access easements over Spinney Road, builds out trails on surrounding Town land, creates a parking area for hikers and bikers, and deeds the Town a 32-acre parcel on Montauk Highway. The approval also lets Discovery sell 177 golf memberships on top of the 118 that come with homes in The Hills. The course has already been open for play for two summers.

One road, two segments, the same rules

The Stipulation of Settlement splits Spinney Road into two segments. The northern segment, which Discovery owns, gets abandoned as a highway and becomes an easement. The southern segment, north of Redan Trail, stays a Town road. Owner and upkeep differ between the two, but the experience on foot is meant to be the same along the whole route.

The northern easement follows the old Spinney right-of-way, crosses two golf holes, and includes a connector across Discovery land to a Town-owned parcel. Emergency vehicles, including police, fire, and ambulances, keep unrestricted access. The landowner has to put up and maintain signs inviting the public to walk, dog-walk, or bike there from dawn to dusk, and the Highway Superintendent approves the sign design. On the southern segment, motor vehicles, golf carts, and landscaping equipment are generally excluded, and Discovery and the Town are to work together on landscaping along it.

For a regular walker, the e-bike ban is the rule most likely to come up. The dawn-to-dusk window comes next, since it gets short quickly in late fall.

A ten-foot path and four parking spaces

The guaranteed part is modest in size. Through The Hills, the path is 10 feet wide, which is room for two people walking side by side with a dog, or a cyclist passing them. The parking is a separate permanent easement at 67 Spinney Road with four public spaces, reached by a driveway off Spinney Road and open dawn to dusk. The revised local law puts the parking easement at 3,852 square feet, or 0.088 acre, and does not require paving for the lot or its access. 27east described the lot as sitting near the end of the paved part of Spinney Road.

The property owner has to build the parking promptly once permits and approvals are in hand, keep the spaces and driveway in suitable condition, and get the Highway Superintendent's sign-off on the design. Four spaces means a single family carload on a busy fall Saturday takes a quarter of the lot. That makes the larger trail system, which comes with its own parking, more important.

The trail network has deadlines and a draft map, not trails

This is where the settlement turns into a schedule. The revised local law requires Discovery to submit a plan for "the creation, updating, and maintenance of a public trail system" on four Town-owned parcels, working with the Town's Trails Advisory Committee. In order:

1. Within 90 days of the law's effective date, Discovery submits the Public Trail System Plan.
2. The plan has to include public parking, a trailhead, and a portion of trail that is wheelchair and ADA accessible.
3. The Town reviews and approves the plan.
4. Within 18 months of that approval, Discovery has to substantially complete construction and installation at its own expense, unless the Town grants an extension and subject to required approvals.

The stipulation says the system should substantially follow a map attached as Exhibit E. Where practicable, the accessible sections are to be compacted soil or wood chips. The documents give no total mileage. 27east described the work as "several miles" of trails along Spinney Road and on Town land east of The Hills.

Put those steps together and the 18-month construction window cannot start until a plan is written, submitted, and approved. Anyone expecting a finished trailhead by next summer is reading the timeline more optimistically than the law does. For now, the Spinney corridor itself is the dependable route. If you want a marked, mapped loop nearby today, the Pine Neck Sanctuary trail and the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, which describes itself as a 300-acre preserve with seven miles of walking trails, are established options.

The 32 acres nobody has assigned yet

The other unfinished piece is on Montauk Highway. Discovery is to convey about 32.4 acres at 436 Montauk Highway to the Town. Once the deed is released, the Town takes on owning, operating, and managing the land, along with its costs. The settlement does not say what the parcel will become.

The August 11 public hearing showed what the community wants from the deal. According to 27east's hearing account, East Quogue CAC chair Cathy Zembetti called the settlement progress and asked that most of the proceeds benefit the hamlet. Anne Algeri, a longtime East Quogue Civic Association leader, argued that all of the money should stay in East Quogue. Christian Connolly, speaking for the CAC, presented the deal as a practical end to years of uncertainty. Not everyone supported it. Jennifer Hartnagel of Group for the East End urged the board to reject it, arguing that it weakened planning protections and gave no enforceable direction for spending the cash. Marissa Bridge pressed the Town to monitor Discovery's compliance to protect the aquifer. Town planning administrator Janice Scherer responded that the course's organic maintenance and groundwater monitoring had shown no contamination so far.

The deal also includes a community obligation outside the trails. The Hills golf course has to host at least four charitable events a year at no cost to the beneficiaries: one for a local fire department, one for a local school district, and two for other local charities. The Town has posted the full settlement packet, adopted resolutions, and revised metes-and-bounds law on its Hills settlement page. That page is the source to check as the trail plan and the Montauk Highway parcel move forward. This summary is general information, not legal advice. Easement terms are set by the recorded documents, so anyone with a property-specific question should take it to an attorney.

If you live near Spinney Road or Montauk Highway and want to understand how new trails, parking, or a 32-acre Town parcel could change how your street gets used and valued, Kelly Dijorio follows these East Quogue projects closely. Visit the East Quogue neighborhood page or reach out. Let's Connect.