Southold Town’s use of eminent domain proceedings to acquire a Mattituck corner that had been slated to become a Brinkmann’s Hardware store has cost the town $2.76 million, and a final payment of nearly $338,000 in legal fees will use up the town’s entire contingency funds for this year, said members of the Southold Town Board at its June 16 work session.
The Brinkmanns bought the property in 2018 with a plan to build a 12,000-square-foot hardware store and an 8,000-square-foot paint store on the site, but after a community campaign to “Preserve The Last Green Corner” organized by the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association, the town voted in 2020 to use eminent domain to take the property for use as a public park.
The 1.7-acre property at 12500 Main Road in Mattituck sits just to the west of a dangerous curve on the Main Road in the center of Mattituck, just east of New Suffolk Avenue.
The lot had been owned by Bridgehampton National Bank when MLCA first began considering it for a park, and the Brinkmanns, who purchased the property for $700,00, had turned down a $775,000 offer from Southold Town and Suffolk County to purchase and preserve it, town officials had said in 2020, when the Town Board voted to go ahead with eminent domain proceedings. The town had also made an offer of nearly $500,000 to purchase the property from Bridgehampton National Bank prior to the Brinkmann’s purchase, according to reports at that time.
The town ultimately ended up bonding $1.1 million to compensate the Brinkmanns for the taking of the land in July of 2023, as the Brinkmanns continued to pursue legal challenges.
The Brinkmanns asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case in 2024, but their petition to the high court was denied. Justices Clarance Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh said they would grant the petition, falling short of the four justices necessary to bring the case before the court.
The total cost to the town of $2.76 million includes “the original acquisition, a revised appraisal and legal fees — basically everything,” said Southold Town Comptroller Michelle Nickonovitz, who outlined the costs to the Town Board at its June 16 work session.
“The public needs to know this. It’s a shocking amount of money,” said Town Supervisor Al Krupski, who was serving in the Suffolk County Legislature during the town’s eminent domain proceedings. “It’s kind of a lesson for the community. I’ve heard people say you should use eminent domain for this and for that.”
Mr. Krupski said the town had just recently been made aware of the final bill for attorney’s fees and court costs of$337,889.60, which the town is slated to approve spending out of its contingency fund at its June 16 evening meeting.
He said this expenditure will completely deplete the town’s emergency contingency fund for this year, and any other unexpected expenses will have to be paid out of the town’s fund balance.
“The coffer is empty,” he said.
“This is the worst case scenario,” said Councilwoman Jill Doherty of the legal battle. “We never know how much the fight is going to be.”
The town has not done anything to improve the property as it awaited the results of some final legal proceedings, though there had been talk over the past few years of creating a small pedestrian path or putting benches there.
“We can’t put a bench there now,” said Mr. Krupski. “We don’t have the money.”
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It was an appropriate use of the contingency funds. Boo on the Brinkmanns for being so recalcitrant.