Southampton Town Prepares to Sue Shinnecock Over Westwoods

The Town of Southampton is preparing to sue the Shinnecock Nation in a bid to stop the tribe from building a gas station and travel plaza at the Westwoods property in Hampton Bays.

The town board voted 3-2 on Dec. 19 to hire the Philadelphia-based law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP to commence legal action against the Shinnecock in response to the tribe’s ongoing construction of a gas station at Westwoods on the side of Route 27. Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore and Town Councilmembers Cynthia McNamara and William Pell voted in favor while Councilmen Michael Iasilli and Tommy John Schiavoni were opposed.

“You wanna come against us and attack us with litigation? We’re not gonna back down,” Lisa Goree, who chairs the Shinnecock Nation’s council of trustees, told the board. “We’ve been here for over 10,000 years. We’re gonna be here for thousands more … This is just another battle that we’re ready to fight.”

The debate hinges on whether the Shinnecock, as a sovereign government, enjoys the same exemption from local zoning laws on tribe-owned land as it does on its territory in Southampton. Bolstering the town’s argument that the same rules don’t apply to Westwoods was a recent appeals court ruling that enacted an injunction ordering the tribe to shut down its electronic advertising billboard monuments in the same area.

“There is still a question about whether or not that parcel is subject to local zoning,” McNamara said. “And as long as that position remains unsettled and isn’t settled by a court of law, it potentially just moves the can down the road for the next board to deal with this.”