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CSH in the News >
Newsday - Developer Eyes Country Club for Homes
Newsday - Developer Eyes Country Club for Homes
Sep 13, 2006 -- Developer eyes country club for homes
BY DANIEL WAGNER
Newsday Staff Writer
September 13, 2006
The Cold Spring Country Club is a step closer to becoming a private real estate development.
Last week, the Huntington club's board voted to let its members vote on a proposed $90-million sale to developer Gary Melius. Melius wants to construct about 250 luxury town homes around the property's centerpiece golf course.
If the club's approximately 200 members agree to sell the property in a vote scheduled for later this month, each could net several hundred thousand dollars as their share of the sale.
"The offer I made was the best for the club, the community and myself," Melius said. "A lot of effort went into making everybody happy."
No one at the club was available for comment.
The 160-acre property was once part of the estate of financier and art collector Otto Kahn that also included the adjacent Oheka Castle - a mansion Melius owns and operates as a catering facility and hotel.
After the club was put on the block last winter, residents and town officials grew concerned about the town's losing open spaces including golf courses, which are generally zoned for half-acre and one-acre residential lots. The town passed a six-month moratorium on such development in February and recently extended it into next year.
Although the community was initially "up in arms" about the possibility of development, said councilwoman Susan Berland, Cold Spring Hills Civic Association chairwoman Gayle Snyder said her group is now satisfied because Melius' plan will preserve the golf course, which she said "wraps around our entire neighborhood and gives it character and a sense of open space to the community."
"Are we in favor of building homes? No," Snyder said, "but if [the club], as the property owners, are entitled to develop the land, then we just don't want to see the golf course developed."
The property is already zoned for half-acre and one-acre residential lots, but will require additional zoning changes to permit dense, town-home-style development.
"The concern always was, can you co-exist with a golf course and add housing?" said supervisor Frank Petrone. "We do have a moratorium at this point in effect, and we anxiously await a plan."
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