Southampton, NY Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Town Code § 89-4.1, added December 22, 1998 by Local Law No. 50-1998, states flatly that no person shall urinate in any public place or in public view within the Town of Southampton outside incorporated villages. The section sits inside Chapter 89, Alcoholic Beverages, immediately after the open-container ban in § 89-4, reflecting its origin as a companion rule aimed at behavior tied to public drinking on Town streets, beaches and parking areas. Because the provision borrows the chapter's own definitions, "public place" carries the same meaning set out at § 89-3: public highways and shopping-center lots as defined by the state Vehicle and Traffic Law, plus parks, playgrounds, sidewalks, buildings, beaches and transportation facilities that match the Penal Law's definition of a public place, excluding single-family and two-family homes used by their own occupants and guests.

The rule reaches conduct in "public view" as well as in an enumerated public place, so it can apply even on private land if the act is visible to others. Southampton Town Police and Public Safety officers, who patrol the Town's beaches, parks and hamlet centers outside the incorporated villages, are the agencies that enforce it day to day.