Riverhead Town considers legislation for golf course vacation rentals

The Town Board is considering legislation to allow vacation rentals at two of the eight privately-owned golf courses within Riverhead Town. 

The proposal would permit “golf cottages” — defined as short-term, transient lodging no larger than 1,200 square feet with bedrooms, a kitchenette and bathrooms — as an accessory use to a golf course. Developers would be able to build one golf cottage per hole, provided they preserve one acre of land from development for each cottage constructed.

Golf cottages were recommended in the updated comprehensive plan adopted by the Town Board last year. Town officials pitched the idea as a way to preserve more farmland throughout town. 

Under the town code changes being considered by the board, golf cottages would be permitted only in the RA-80 zoning district, which encompasses most of the land north of Sound Avenue from Baiting Hollow to the eastern town border. That restriction would limit development to just two of the eight privately-owned courses within the town: Friars Head and the Baiting Hollow Club.

Senior Planner Greg Bergman presented a draft of the legislation to the Town Board at Thursday’s work session.

“I’m in full support of this because what the farmers have been continuously asking is to be able to sell [development rights],” Council Member Ken Rothwell said.

Bergman proposed limiting golf cottages to one-bedroom units no larger than 600 square feet. But board members favored larger cottages — up to 1,200 square feet — with no restriction on the number of bedrooms.

“If you have a foursome and you have four people coming in to play, you might have two double beds in two rooms, or something like that,” Rothwell said. “I don’t see that it’s necessary to say that this could only be a one-bedroom.” 

Bergman said the language in his draft mimicked that of the updated comprehensive plan. With the average hotel room ranging from 300 to 400 square feet, a 600-square-foot cottage would already be “well in excess of a standard hotel room,” he said.

“These were not meant to be large residential-type units. They were meant for short stays,” Bergman said. “You got a couple of friends who want to come out — you got a bachelor party, you go out and rent a couple units. You stay on the golf course. You have a weekend out east.”

But board members said they preferred allowing larger units. Bergman agreed to return with revisions that reflect their suggestions.

Council Member Joann Waski raised concerns about competition with the local hotel industry. “I think that if we left it at 600 square feet, [that] would be the equivalent of almost having a hotel room,” she said.

Council Member Bob Kern said the local hotels are “already maxed out” during the town’s busy tourism season.

“This is marketing an entirely new idea,” Rothwell added. This is the golf course themselves and the [golf[ clubs bringing people in from Manhattan to stay and play — drinking, not leaving the grounds, not having a car to drive and being on site. I just — I don’t see it affecting the hotels.”

Supervisor Tim Hubbard said that golf cottages are being done “all over the country. 

“I’ve seen them done in [Colorado] and whatnot. They’ve had different setups. They’re really very attractive; it really dresses up the golf course a little bit too. It’s kind of nice the way they’ve surrounded the course with small, little residential quarters for people that are really enamored with the game of golf.”

Board members indicated they want to allow golf cottages at other courses. However, that would require the town to commission a generic environmental impact statement. Allowing it in the RA-80 zoning district is easy to do, since that zone is already a designated “receiving area” under the town’s transfer of development rights code, Bergman said. 

Bergman said that if both Friars Head and Baiting Hollow Club developed cottages, the town could preserve up to 36 acres of farmland. According to the comprehensive plan, more than 6,300 acres of agricultural land in Riverhead Town is unprotected from development. 

“We’re looking for ways to really drive the [transfer of development rights] program,” Bergman said. “There’s not going to be one silver bullet that’s addressed [farmland preservation]. It’s going to be through these little changes here or there that are kind of just chip away at what we have left.”

“I say, can we agree to get this going and get a resolution in and get it in motion?” Rothwell said. Board members agreed.