Land Surveyor in West Hampton Dunes, Suffolk County, NY

West Hampton Dunes is located on a barrier island in the Town of Southampton. The barrier island was part of Fire Island until a nor’easter in 1931 split the island creating Moriches Inlet. The inlet created a geographic oddity whereby the Town of Brookhaven actually has jurisdiction on land immediately west of West Hampton Dunes although Brookhaven land access to it involves a nearly 20-mile (32 km) drive through the Town of Southampton.

The village incorporated in 1993 in attempt to have more control over its precarious state since it was obliterated in the Great Hurricane of 1938, the 1991 Halloween Nor’easter (“The Perfect Storm”) and again in a 1992 nor’easter. Specifically, the village wanted to have a say in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers handling of the barrier beach-particularly in response to a series of groynes at Shinnecock Inlet that have created major beach erosion “downstream” in the longshore drift. Almost immediately after incorporation, Gary Vegliante, the village’s first and to date only mayor, sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for $200 million. The Corps settled the suit and began replenishing the beach leading to a building boom on what had been a devastated empty section of beach.

The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association named West Hampton Dunes one of America’s top restored beaches. In 2007, resident Yale Nelson finished a documentary on the town history which premiered October 20, 2007, in Westhampton at the Hamptons Film Festival.