A development plan that would have built 28 additional homes at Stonebridge Golf Links and Country Club in Hauppauge and shortened its 18-hole golf course into abbreviated nines has been withdrawn by ownership, according to Newsday. All that remains now are lingering questions and concerns about the future of the current golf course.
Newsday's Jean-Paul Salamanca reported last week that Stonebridge representatives sent a letter of withdrawal dated May 7 to the Town of Smithtown's Planning Board, roughly six weeks after a public hearing in front of the board and members of the community. At that March 20 meeting, attorney David Altman and Islip-based architect Jerry Rumplick presented a plan for new houses along Stonebridge's western perimeter. To build the proposed homes, Stonebridge asked the planning board to consider amending the longtime covenants that restrict new development on the site.
The most notable exchange took place near the end of the meeting when board member Rick Lanese pressed Altman to explain how Smithtown residents would benefit from a plan that adds housing to an environmentally sensitive site and negatively impacts the existing Stonebridge course. Altman said they benefit because the alternative would be total loss of the golf course.
Now that the plan has been withdrawn, that back-and-forth between Altman and the board takes on much greater significance. Stonebridge representatives declined to comment to Newsday about the withdrawal, Salamanca reported, and Altman has not responded to questions about the golf course from Golf On Long Island.
Stonebridge replaced and redesigned the former Hauppauge Country Club in 1999, at which time covenants were put in place to limit future additions to the 105-home residential community and changes to club membership and the golf course itself. The two golf courses have occupied the Veterans Highway site since the 1950s.
Residents and neighbors spoke out against the plan at the March 20 meeting, citing concerns over the course modifications, environmental impact, proximity to the adjacent county park and decline in home value. Under the proposed plan, new homes would have replaced the 17th and 18th holes, and the western half of the current course would have been reduced to an executive-length nine-hole layout. The eastern half likely would have remained as a separate full-length nine.
Stonebridge's course design pays tribute to renowned early-1900s designers C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor and Charles Banks. Macdonald biographer and historian George Bahto redesigned the previous Hauppauge course to include replicas of holes typically found at famous American and European clubs, making it unique among Long Island's roster of public golf courses. The 17th hole, which would have been destroyed under the housing proposal, is modeled after Macdonald's "Eden" par-3s. Other replicas include the Redan at #4, Biarritz at #7 and Hog's Back green at #16.
For more on the course, see the Stonebridge flyover.
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