Golf Club Debate Continues

The Village of East Williston Board held a continuation of a public hearing on Monday, June 29, for the Wheatley Hills Golf Club to renovate their employee living quarters.

Multiple residents objected to the renovations. The village board and officials representing the golf course did however inform residents that the question of whether living quarters should or should not be at the club is not relevant to this particular hearing and application, and the use of the living quarters predates the incorporation of the village.

Kevin Walsh, attorney for Wheatley Golf Course with the firm Walsh Markus McDougal & DeBellis, LLP, presented conceptual projections for the renovations at the last hearing in December 2014 and again reviewed the latest application.

“The number one thing that we want to do is provide room for the staff,” Walsh said. “The application is to basically take the same space and retrofit it.”

The hearing is for a continued use application by the golf club, which according to village attorney Jeffrey Blinkoff, the golf course has been granted a conditional use to exist as it has for many years.

“The conditional use given to the golf course predates the village’s prior code enactment,” Blinkoff said, who referred to the most recent code revamping in 1986. “At that time, the conditional use grant to the golf course was continued.”

According to Blinkoff, the conditional use protocol was updated by the village board in 2007, with the idea was that if anyone holding a conditional use wanted to make a change, they would need to come back before the board of trustees for a hearing.

The application would allow the golf club to have construction done within the existing buildings on the site and any modifications will need to remain within the existing buildings. The original plan was to extend the building slightly over 3,000-square-feet and was estimated to cost nearly $500,000, with renovations totaling $100,000.

That prior proposal would have included modifications to a basement of the one of the buildings on the western portion of the main golf course building to allow for living space. The golf club is no longer seeking living quarters in the basement and it will remain as storage.

Following the December hearing, a figure of $250,000 was estimated for the revised plan. Walsh said a price could fall within that range, however can potentially change in the bidding process for the construction work.

Village Building Inspector Robert Campagna said the latest application by the golf club dated April 16 would renovate the first floor of the staff quarters on the west side of the main house, making eight bedrooms instead of 12. There will not be any changes to the square footage, basement of staff housing, which is used for storage, and no changes to the main clubhouse that has three bedrooms on the east side.

Additional portions of the application pertain to two parking spaces, which would be moved from the area in front of the main building to an upper lot, as the expansion for living quarters will result in an 84 square feet portico being added to allow entrance into the living space.

Walsh said the rooms, which would be for one individual each, would be 10 ft. x 10 ft. or 10 ft. x 12 ft., with common areas and showers. There are no female employees at the club, but Wheatley Hills president Anthony Cardillo has said that appropriate accommodations would be made if that should change.

At previous hearings, it came as news to many that employees were living on the golf club premises. Walsh said, “the reason people didn’t know they were living there, which we were shocked to hear, is that there had never been incidents with the employees.”

Walsh indicated that there are anywhere from eight to 12 employees living at the golf club. Providing a history of the golf club’s living quarters, Walsh said an article had been recovered from a 1926 edition of Golf Illustrated with a photograph of the club’s staff housing in the same configuration as it is today.

Providing a further timeline of events, Campagna said the village approved an alteration plan in February 1956, which allowed for managers quarters in the main building.

Village Mayor David Tanner asked Campagna if he had a recommendation for the board on the application, which Campagna said, “I have no issue with this application—I don’t think it has any negative effect on the neighbors. There have been employees sleeping there since before I was born.”

Residents did take issue with the application, referring to it as “unnecessary and basically just a way for the club to control costs.” They also objected to the number of employees at the golf club, suggesting that it be lowered to four or five, concerned that the number could increase in the future.

Walsh stated that the golf club will not increase the number of employees living there without coming before the village board beforehand. Should the village deny the application, the club would be able to continue housing 15 employees.

East Williston resident Kathy Rittel, whose property abuts the building in question for the renovations, spoke about complaints she issued about a loud noise from delivery trucks at 2:50 a.m. Campagna said he spoke to the club and was promised it would not happen again.

A decision by the village board is scheduled for Aug. 31 at village hall.