Proposed hotel/restaurant project in Southold spurs petition drive

Southold residents have put together a petition opposing the proposed building of a hotel and restaurant on the north side of the hamlet's Main Road.

The proposal for “The Enclaves” — submitted by Huntington-based Andrew V. Giambertone & Associates Architects — calls for building a 74-seat restaurant and the development of a two-story, 40-room hotel with four detached cottages and amenities such as a swimming pool and lounge areas. The hotel and restaurant would be constructed on a 6.75-acre property on Main Road, according to the draft environmental impact statement the applicants submitted to the town.

Though the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals held a Nov. 7 public hearing on the project, Carol Owens, a resident of Town Harbor Lane near the proposed hotel, said she and other neighbors were not aware of the project until recently. Owens has lived in Southold for 20 years and said she is concerned the hotel could create more traffic during the summer.

“How would we even get a chance to get out of our homes if we want to?” she said. “If there’s going to be this huge hotel and all the visitors . . . I don’t know how I’d get out on Main Road.”

Nancy Bayliss, who lives about 1.5 miles from the site, said she was worried that more visitors could potentially create larger crowds at the smaller beaches near her, such as Founders Landing. She also said she was concerned the hotel could potentially change the overall quiet life she moved to Southold for.

“It’s not that I’m opposed to things changing,” Bayliss said. “I know that change is going to happen, but this is just so over the top.”

Owens, Bayliss and several neighbors began to go door-to-door collecting signatures on a petition calling for Southold’s Zoning Board of Appeals not to grant special exemptions necessary for the hotel to be built. About 391 signatures have been collected so far for the online version of the petition, and 100 signatures were submitted to the zoning board.

Attorneys representing the applicant did not respond to a request for comment.

Planning Board officials said the zoning board has told them the application is still undergoing the state environmental quality review. The final environmental impact statement is still being developed and would need to be finalized before the zoning board could make its decision. The planning board would then issue its own decision on the project.