Discovery Land’s The Hills in the Hamptons, New York, Can Now Admit Golf Members Who Don’t Own Homes There
Southampton Town this week adopted zoning that settles three lawsuits with Discovery Land Company, allowing The Hills in East Quogue, New York, to sell up to 177 golf memberships to people who do not own homes there. The club can now reach 295 members.
Southampton Town, on Long Island in the Hamptons of New York, this week adopted zoning that settles three lawsuits with Discovery Land Company. The change lets The Hills, a private golf and residential community in East Quogue, sell up to 177 golf memberships to people who do not own homes there. Until the vote the club was restricted to owners of its 118 residential units. It can now reach a total of 295 members.
The Hills occupies roughly 600 acres of pine barrens. Its 18-hole course was designed by Tom Fazio, Discovery’s go-to architect, and opened for play in summer 2025. The course has now been open for two summers, but only to owners of residences in the development. GOLF.com described it as the first new golf club on Long Island in more than 20 years. Homes and condos remain under construction.
As Newsday reported, the Town Board approved the zoning amendments under a settlement reached in July between the town and affiliates of Arizona-based Discovery Land. Discovery pays $10 million for a narrow strip of town-owned land that runs through the development, plus another $1.5 million, and transfers a largely wooded 32.4-acre parcel along Montauk Highway to the town. According to the Southampton Press on 27east, the town will also abandon an unpaved portion of Spinney Road that crosses the property.
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Discovery grants permanent public access easements over Spinney Road, including pedestrian access across The Hills, establishes and improves several miles of hiking trails on surrounding lands, and creates a parking area for hikers and bikers. The club must keep a wooded trail open to the public and host at least four free charity events a year. The town’s adopted settlement resolutions are posted online. Discovery spokeswoman Jessica Insalaco said, “With the rezoning now adopted, The Hills is ready to provide public lands and fundraising opportunities for local non-profits.”
The settlement ends a legal fight that began years ago. Discovery brought two suits against the town, in 2020 and 2025, and Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle filed a third against Discovery in early 2026, which first revealed that the town still owned the strip bisecting the development and its golf course. Town Attorney James M. Burke said the settlement “avoids the potential liability for monetary damages,” noting that Discovery had estimated more than $100 million in damages in one suit. The money, he said, can be used “to the benefit of the residents of the town.” The approval rests on the planned development district application first filed in 2013 that led the Town Board to repeal its PDD legislation in 2017. The project won town approval in 2022.
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Reaction in East Quogue was mixed. Many residents applauded the settlement, some resigned to the project, while the staunchest opponents say the town should have kept fighting in court. Chris Connelly of the East Quogue Citizens Advisory Committee told the board at its Aug. 11 hearing that “no settlement is perfect,” but that after 10 years the town has “an opportunity to secure meaningful environmental, recreational, financial and community benefits.” Jenn Hartnagel of the Group for the East End argued that the memberships are “potentially worth tens of millions of dollars” and that “the town should sustain its appeal and resist coercive financial threats from developers.” Initiation fees and home prices have not been made public. The Southampton Press reports only that the additional memberships are expected to fetch in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
Discovery is a multinational developer whose clubs are high-end and private with a luxury real-estate component, a model also at work in its Flathead Lake community in Montana, Territory 1889, and one that now sits alongside established Long Island private clubs such as the Tam O’Shanter Club in Brookville. For Hamptons private golf the settlement adds a club that can recruit members from outside its own homeowner base. For other golf communities whose clubs were limited to homeowners it shows that a membership expansion can be negotiated with a town, and that the price can include cash, land, public access, and community programming.
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