|
|
|
CSH in the News >
Newsday - Town’s drive to keep greens green
Newsday - Town’s drive to keep greens green
Huntington -- Dec 19, 2005 --
BY CYNTHIA DANIELS
STAFF WRITER
December 19, 2005
Gone are the days when golf courses served as pristine greens for sport and sport alone. Now, the parcels stand as lands ripe for subdivision.
And the potential sale of eight privately owned golf courses in the Town of Huntington is prompting officials to consider a six-month moratorium on developing the properties.
"Besides public tracts of lands and public parks, golf courses constitute the largest category of open space in our town," said town Councilman Mark Cuthbertson, who last week offered a resolution to hold a public hearing. "And for many years, we have taken for granted that they would always be golf courses."
The town's complacency ended in October when the Cold Spring Country Club was put on the block.
"That's their right," Cuthbertson said. "But it's also our right, as a town, to put in regulations that are going to seek to preserve land."
Sale of the 169-acre property - once part of the estate owned by financier and art collector Otto Kahn - could fetch $68 million. But its 215 members have yet to commit to a buyer.
But for the club's neighbors, the proposed sale offers frightening possibilities: development and the disappearance of rolling hills and towering trees.
"It's an integral part of our neighborhood," said Gayle Snyder, chairwoman of the Cold Spring Hills Civic Association Inc., whose 300-home community surrounds the course. "We have an opportunity to protect this land and we have the opportunity now - we may not in 10 years."
There are 10 golf courses within the town, eight of which are privately owned and constitute nearly 900 acres of open land. The majority of those 900 acres, town officials say, are zoned residential and contain environmentally sensitive areas, like wetlands and steep slopes.
The moratorium would allow the town to perform a study of whether the proposed plan for development fits the neighborhood character, put together a survey, and "try to tailor any plans necessary for each of the courses with those given communities," Supervisor Frank Petrone said.
For now, builders and developers don't oppose a six-month halt. But "six months turns into six more months," said Bram Weber, a partner at Weber Law Group Llp in Melville, which specializes in land use and commercial real estate.
Weber's client, Huntington Hills Associates Llc, has been working with the town's planning board for the past year to subdivide the 41-acre Ryder Avenue Golf Course in Dix Hills. Weber said he's analyzing the proposed legislation to see how it applies to the project.
"We've seen it in town after town, where they tell you, 'What's the big deal? It's only six months.' And 2 1/2 years later, they wonder why there are lawsuits against them and an uproar," said Lennard Axinn, a partner in Island Estates, a Melville-based real estate development firm. "Would they guarantee there won't be an extension?"
Huntington officials say they will certainly try. A public hearing on the resolution has been scheduled for Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.
If approved, the town should be prepared to hire a planning consultant or dedicate one staff member to complete an in-depth analysis in six months, said Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, a smart-growth planning organization.
"Usually, towns act when there's a crisis," Alexander said. "And sometimes good planning decisions can arise - there's that hope here."
Golf courses in Huntington
Here is a list of the eight privately owned golf
courses in the Town of Huntington:
Huntington Country Club
Huntington Crescent Club
Indian Hills Country Club
Cold Spring Country Club
Dix Hills Golf Course
The Greens at Half Hollow
Hamlet Golf and
Country Club
Hollow Hills Golf Course (also known as the Ryder Avenue Golf Course)
There are also two town-owned courses:
Crab Meadow Golf Course
Dix Hills Park Golf Course
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
|
|
