Southold weighs luxury housing plan, preservation in heart of North Fork farm belt

A sprawling stretch of North Fork farmland could be saved as open space under a new plan for upscale housing, but the proposal must be reworked to satisfy Southold Town's regulations.

Crossroads Atlantic, a division of the Soloviev Group, has submitted plans to carve 372 acres in the heart of Southold’s farm belt into 47 residential lots, while keeping 267 of the acres undeveloped. The land — spanning from County Road 48 to Long Island Sound, just east of Bridge Lane in Cutchogue — is "so big it spans two hamlets," according to Heather Lanza, the town's planning director.

It is the largest conservation subdivision the planning board has ever reviewed, one that clusters homes on part of the property while allowing the surrounding fields to remain in production. Protecting open space is a central part of Southold's 2020 comprehensive plan, which guides land use and zoning policy across the town.

But the push to preserve farmland collides with competing pressures: rising land values, a shortage of affordable housing and insatiable demand for luxury homes on the North Fork. Town officials, through preservation tactics, find themselves trying to defend the region's agricultural identity while still allowing new development to advance.

The Crossroads proposal arrives as more large tracts of land enter the real estate market. Nearby in Cutchogue, real estate broker Judi Desiderio recently listed an 88-acre subdivision that requires 60 of those acres of farmland to remain intact. The property, which includes eight residential lots, is being offered for $23 million, Newsday has reported.

The Crossroads Atlantic project has several hurdles to clear. Town planners say the design must be reworked to align with Southold's comprehensive plan.

The planning board deemed the application incomplete in October because it doesn’t conform with certain town standards. When farmland is subdivided, the layout must promote farming by maximizing sunlight and allowing tractors and other equipment to maneuver the property, according to the comprehensive plan. Lots must also be designed to minimize potential conflicts with neighbors over equipment noise, farm odors and dust. 

Conservation subdivisions are a planning tool Southold has used to reduce density of allowable development on properties. In Soloviev's proposal, 75% of the land is preserved and the potential build out is reduced by 75%, according to town planners.

Southold also requires standard subdivisions to preserve land, but development can be more dense. A standard subdivision on the large property could have yielded 193 lots, officials said.

"Any development has the possibility of changing the landscape in Southold," said Dave Bergen, a board member on the Cutchogue Civic Association. "What makes this place so great is how much land has been preserved to maintain the agricultural component in this town. We want to maintain that as much as we can."

Goal to 'preserve as much as possible'

The 2020 comprehensive plan set a goal of preserving 8,000 acres of agricultural land. Close to 27% of the town’s total area is already protected from development. Another 27% of the land can be developed, more than half of which is farmland.

There’s enough vacant land with intact development rights to build some 4,378 new homes, though the plan says that scenario is “unlikely” because of the town’s aggressive preservation methods.

Town Supervisor Al Krupski said the proposal has grabbed attention because of how large the property spans. “It’s a big tract of productive farmland,” he said, adding the goal of conservation subdivisions is to “preserve as much as possible.”

“The fact that it’s a conservation subdivision is good, because this is an important property,” Lanza said during a town meeting in October. “It’s the whole east end of our big farm belt; it’s the last big block that needs this much preservation.”

The application would carve out 18 residential lots on the bluffs overlooking Long Island Sound and include a lot for private beach access. The remaining 29 lots are laid out in two blocks south of the bluffs.

Lanza made recommendations for the developer in a letter to the company's attorney, Martin Finnegan, of Mattituck. The town suggested relocating some proposed roads and a “more compact, clustered lot design that minimizes the intrusion of residential uses into the farmland,” the letter states. 

Town officials also recommended splitting the large, 267-acre farm parcel into three to five smaller, more manageable lots to promote future agricultural uses.

“It’s an option for one person to have a much larger operation, but the practicality of it is that there will be a number of smaller operations there in the future,” Krupski said.

Finnegan did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Soloviev Group said preservation is a priority.

“More land will be preserved in this project than in any other comparable effort on the North Fork," the company said in a statement. "We remain committed to long-term land stewardship and the area’s agricultural heritage.”

Land acquisitions

Crossroads Atlantic is a division of Crossroads Agriculture, founded in 1999 by Stefan Soloviev, the son of Manhattan real estate mogul Sheldon Solow. Crossroads owns more than 400,000 acres of farmland in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Texas and New York, according to the firm’s website.

Soloviev has amassed more than 1,000 acres on the North Fork, the “vast majority” of which will remain farmland, he previously told Newsday.

The company’s East End holdings include a peach farm, Christmas tree farm, winery and several businesses on Shelter Island including an inn and pharmacy, which recently ended prescription services.

The proposal has piqued the interest of residents and local civic associations. Leaders at the Cutchogue Civic Association told Newsday that as the plan progresses, they may hold a public forum to keep residents informed about developments.

Town planning officials said the application is missing technical details and surveys. Once the revisions are completed, the board will schedule a public hearing and could require further environmental and traffic studies.

“We all see that what’s been proposed is big, but also it’s so early in the process,” Carolyn McCall, the civic’s co-president, said in an interview.

McCall said the most important thing is ensuring the proposal adheres to the comprehensive plan.

“That to us is really the key … It’s the blueprint,” she said. “We have to find a balance as a community between economic development and land preservation.”