A Westchester-based developer is looking to build a ‘5-star resort’ on the Long Island Sound in Riverhead and has met with Town Board members and other officials to discuss the idea — a project the developer has listed as part of its development portfolio on its website.
The North Fork Resort would be a “luxury resort and spa” on a “105-acre site on the North Fork Wine trail.” The land “offers the potential to build a truly unique campus beach resort experience,” according to the website of Alfred Weissman Real Estate, a developer with headquarters in Harrison, N.Y..
“The property has a private beach with over 600 linear feet of coastline and a 70-acre organic farm, that will allow for the offering of an organic farm to table experience,” a description of the development says. “AWRE is looking to build a 5-star resort, taking advantage of the property’s natural beauty, proximity to NYC, the Hamptons and the North Fork wine trail. The property is located less than 90 miles from NYC and 13 miles from Westhampton Beach.”
Information about the project was listed on a page showing development projects in the Alfred Weissman Real Estate “portfolio,” with links to individual project pages. It appeared in a section of the page labeled “new development.”
The location of the “North Fork Resort” is not clearly identified. It is listed as “North Fork, N.Y..” A Google Earth image accompanying the project description shows property in Riverhead north of Sound Avenue between the North Fork County Park (formerly the North Fork Preserve) on the east and the Willow Ponds condominium development on the west.
Most of the land in the area is farmland. Some is owned by the McCombes of Briermere Farms, including much of the coastline. Other properties on the shoreline are smaller and do not fit the area of the development site in the description, and some have their farmland development rights sold or are preserved by the Peconic Land Trust.
The area is in a residential zoning use district that allows agricultural uses and low- to medium-density residential development as of right. It does not allow the development of hotels or spas.
Officials at Alfred Weissman Real Estate did not return an email and voice messages requesting an interview about their plans. After inquiries from a reporter to town officials and to Alfred Weissman, the project was removed from the “new development” section of the company’s portfolio page; a company official did not respond to a follow-up email asking why it was removed. However, a page describing the site and the proposal remains live on the company website as of publication of this story.
Clark McCombe, an owner of Briermere Farm and most of the land pictured in the image on the website, said in an interview today that he did not know anything about the project.
In interviews, town officials said they did not know precisely which property the developer was proposing for the hotel and spa, but acknowledged they have met previously with Alfred Weissman representatives.
“It’s just a concept proposal,” Community Development Director Dawn Thomas said.
Thomas said town officials have met with representatives of Alfred Weissman at various times over the last two years, most recently this spring. She acknowledged the project would require a change of zoning and that allowing the type of use with the purchase of development rights from agriculturally zoned “sending areas” could be a viable option for the town.
“It occurred to me that this kind of a thing might be of interest,” Thomas said. “It is in a residentially zoned area… a project like this wouldn’t put kids in the school district. It wouldn’t be a heavy-use project and maybe it would be something to consider. So that is what we talked about.”
Transfer of development rights, or TDR, is a program created by a municipality to allow a developer to purchase the rights to develop a property from a parcel of land in a designated “sending area,” and redeem those rights on a different property in a designated “receiving area” in order to increase development density on the receiving parcel. The programs are often applied to preserve farmland and open space. Riverhead Town has had a TDR program for more than two decades, but it has not been as active as needed for it to be an effective preservation tool. Town officials have been discussing the need to increase TDR “receiving areas” for years and have said revamping the town’s TDR program to increase “receiving areas” is a priority in the comprehensive plan update. They are looking to use a more effective TDR program to help preserve 7,000 acres of unpreserved farmland.
“It would be a zone change — but not for that particular parcel of land. It would be for that whole area,” Thomas said. “And there’s a few other ones that are popping around too that we are thinking about, whether it would make sense for us to make more TDR opportunities,” she said.
“The idea is really to create agritourism experiences — to bring people to farms and have them stay,” Thomas said.
Thomas said Town Board members Tim Hubbard, Bob Kern and Ken Rothwell are familiar with the discussions with Alfred Weissman. “It’s just been conceptually kicked around,” Thomas said.
In an interview yesterday, Hubbard said he knew of the project, but not its location. He said he attended a pre-submission conference — a meeting held between town officials and a developer before the developer decides to formally submit an application to the town — but he said he could not recall when that meeting was.
Hubbard, who is the Republican candidate for town supervisor in this year’s election, received a $1,000 campaign contribution on April 19 from Alfred Weissman at the company’s address, according to recent disclosure filings. He denied knowledge of who contributed what amounts to his campaign and said his campaign finances were handled by his daughter, Meaghan Howard, who is his committee’s treasurer.
Hubbard said he would not support changing the zoning to allow hotels or spas.
Kern said he knows of a project in that area, but could not immediately recall any details about the particular project. “I’m aware that there was, like, an agritourism thing,” Kern said in an interview today. “I thought everything sounded good, but I haven’t heard anything since,” he said. Kern has expressed interest in rezoning the area north of Sound Avenue to the agricultural protection zone; most of the land immediately south of Sound Avenue is zoned agricultural protection, which is currently the town’s TDR farmland preservation sending area.
Rothwell did not return a call requesting comment.
Correction: This article was amended after initial publication to correct the spelling of the first name of Tim Hubbard’s treasurer. Her name is spelled Meaghan, not Megan.
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