Southold eminent-domain fight over Mattituck site tops $2.76 million
Southold has spent $2.76 million on the Mattituck eminent-domain fight, and nearly $338,000 more in legal fees would wipe out this year’s contingency fund.
Southold Town’s fight to take a Mattituck corner once slated for a Brinkmann’s Hardware store has already cost taxpayers $2.76 million, and the bill is still climbing. A final legal payment of nearly $338,000 would exhaust the town’s 2026 contingency funds, turning a long land-use battle into an immediate budget problem.
The parcel sits at 12500 Main Road, a 1.7-acre wooded site just west of a dangerous curve and east of New Suffolk Avenue. The Brinkmann family had planned a 20,000-square-foot hardware store there, but Southold instead moved to preserve the property for public use. Supporters have long called it the Last Green Corner, reflecting the argument that the town should keep the site as parkland or open space rather than allow another commercial project.
The Town Board voted 5-1 in 2019 to begin eminent-domain proceedings, with Councilman Jim Dinizio casting the lone no vote. Southold then held a public hearing on the proposal in August 2020 and had 90 days to adopt a findings statement supporting the taking. That decision set off years of litigation over whether the town had gone too far in using its power to control development on one of Mattituck’s most visible corners.
Ben Brinkmann and Hank Brinkmann, along with Mattituck 12500 LLC, filed a federal lawsuit in May 2021. The case moved through the courts for years, with the Brinkmanns pressing their challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. When the high court declined to hear the case in 2024, the family’s legal options were effectively finished and Southold said it would move ahead with plans to use the property as a public park or green space.
What remains for taxpayers is a growing tab. The town’s legal and related costs have reached $2.76 million, and the final payment of nearly $338,000 will consume Southold’s entire 2026 contingency fund. That leaves the town with no cushion for other unexpected expenses this year and makes the Brinkmann fight one of the clearest examples in recent Southold history of how an eminent-domain case can spill from planning law into the annual budget.
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