Southampton, NY Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Southampton adopted Chapter 285, Stormwater Management and Erosion and Sediment Control, in 2010 under its Municipal Home Rule Law authority, after the Town obtained SPDES Permit No. NYR20A454 from the state Department of Environmental Conservation covering its own storm sewer discharges. The chapter's applicability turns on the defined term land development/redevelopment activity, which under Section 285-5 means construction activity, including clearing, grading, excavating, soil disturbance or fill placement, that disturbs one acre or more, or a smaller parcel that is part of a larger common plan of development or sale.

Any project meeting that threshold must, under Section 285-9A(1), have its stormwater pollution prevention plan, called a SWPPP, received, reviewed and accepted by the Town's Stormwater Management Officer before the Planning Board signs plans or the Building Department issues a permit. The SWPPP has to be filed along with a Notice of Intent that gets forwarded to the state, and it must be kept current: the owner or operator has to amend it whenever it proves ineffective or the site design changes in a way that affects pollutant discharge.

A handful of activities are exempt outright under Section 285-7, including agricultural activity, home gardening, cemetery graves and routine landscaping, but exempt or not, any stormwater practice already built on a site must still be kept in good working order by the landowner.