The Wheatley Hills Golf Club will present its nearly $500,000 plan to build a 12-bedroom, one-story slate-roof building for its staff members before the East Williston Village Board on Dec. 4. The club also seeks to add six bedrooms to the current club building and construct an underground parking garage, which club reps say will be used for storage and golf carts.
“I’m looking forward to hearing the presentation by the country club as to what they’re looking to do and why they’re looking to do it,” Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente said in a phone interview. “We’ve already received preliminary push back from our residents. We have to respect both the residents’ opinions and the position of the business owner.”
According to plans reviewed at Village Hall, the $400,000 new building would total 3,254 square feet, stretching south along Ridge Road toward East Williston Avenue. The renovations to the current 2,169 square foot dwelling would run Wheatley a $100,000 bill.
Village Building Inspector Robert Campagna refuted those figures at a zoning board of appeals last week.
“That budget is totally unrealistic for what you’re building,” he said.
The plan calls for additional common areas, kitchens and bathroom along with outside vestibules on the northern edges of the proposed building.
“Even though we’re looking to have 18 rooms, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll have them all filled,” Wheatley Hills President Anthony Cardillo said. “It’s to provide flexibility.”
Housing at the club, which opened in 1913 at 147 East Williston Ave. however, is not unprecedented.
“There have been renovations and additions a number of times over the years,” Campagna said. “In the main club on the east side, there was a general manager’s apartment that was built way back in the ’40s.”
The one story addition would stand 22-feet, matching the existing building. Local residents at last week’s meeting argued the dwellings would bring unneeded traffic and a “Motel 6 feel to the area.”
“There is truly no effort here to expand what the club currently is,” golf club legal counsel rep Kevin Walsh said. “They’re not expanding any uses in connection with it. There’s no additional catering. The actual application is to construct an additional area that existing employees already reside at the club can use.”
Walsh said at least 10 employees have lived in the current building. Furthermore, he stressed there’s no plan build a non-employee housing facility.
“We don’t anticipate the project will cost anywhere near the volume it suggest,” said Wheatley Hills Board of Governors treasurer Richard Kearns. “This project was approved by members to expend up to the amounts mentioned. We will not be Ritz Carlton-esque with the accommodations. We want it to be suitable to attract interns and [employees].”
Ridge Road resident Kathy Rittel argued against the project. Her property abuts the golf course and the proposed site for the building addition.
“If you look at some of the designs, it looks like a glorified Motel 6,” Rittel said. “I sit in my living room at night, I see lights on at the golf course and I’m curious to find out when that was permissible.”
With the golf club encompassing 20 percent of the entire village, resident and former deputy mayor Tony Casella said the code’s revision 26 years ago focused on golf courses.
“Between 1985 and 1988 the board of trustees completely revised the village code,” he said. “One of our main concerns was golf courses. The definition does not include the presence of employees living on the golf course.”
Wheatley’s appearance next week before the board was preceded by a building department permit denial. Campagna argued a variance was needed for a non-conforming use of the property, including board of trustee approval. Walsh argued the zoning code suggests golf clubs are a “permitted use.”
“The code specifically defines what a golf club and country club can do,” zoning board Chairman Michael Holland said. “I don’t find anything [in the code] that would permit Wheatley to provide living accommodations for employees. From my interpretation, by doing so, the club is conducting a non-conforming use.”
The zoning board left the meeting open to allow Wheatley to submit additional documentation to support the plan’s approval.
