The Wheatley Hills Golf Club presented a revised plan to renovate living quarters for its staff workers at a hearing at the East Williston Village Hall on Monday.
The plan, which has been heavily modified from the original proposal, includes renovating 12 existing bedrooms and converting them into eight bedrooms to allow employees a larger living space, according to the club’s attorney, Kevin Walsh.
Walsh said the club also wants to add a more attractive walk out on the eastern side of the building, which will result in the relocation of two parking spots.
“The bedrooms are ridiculously small,” East Williston building inspector Robert Campagna told the residents at the hearing. “They’re basically cubicles. The club is asking to enlarge those spaces.”
With the changes to the club, which is located at 147 East Williston Ave., eight staffers would live in the renovated quarters, and three staffers would live in the manager’s quarters on the other side of the building.
The renovations, Walsh said, would result in a reduction in the number of staff members living on promises from the current 15 to 11 and require no additional square footage.
The original plan called for a 3,000-foot addition to increase the square footage of each of the rooms and provide a common area, as well as room for additional staffers.
A revised plan presented at the December hearing requested changing the 12 bedrooms to eight and also adding four more in a basement storage area, but village trustees told the club permission from the zoning board would still be necessary.
“If we want to keep this as simple as possible, we want to renovate the existing building,” Walsh said. “The number one thing we want to do is provide more room to the staff.”
He said the club is not aware of a single complaint in regards to the staff living in the building.
Campagna said there is evidence that the building has held sleeping quarters since 1926, according to a story in Golf Illustrated that included drawings that show the wing with the same rooms that exist today. At the time the article was published, the Village of East Williston had not yet been incorporated.
Village officials said the village could not prohibit the housing of people at the club since the club predates the village code, but could rule on proposed changes to the current housing structure.
“The use predates the incorporation of this village,” Campagna said. “Whether you want to argue whether people should sleep there or not — that’s not something that is discussable.”
Despite the changes to plan, residents continued to express concerns.
Resident Kathy Rittel, whose property borders on the club, said she is unsure if the same number of staffers have lived there for as long as the club and its attorney are claiming. She said that in her 35 years of residency, she has only begun to hear noises within the past five years.
“The real issue now is how many people do you allow to be there?” Rittell said. “When I looked at the code, it says that things appropriate in other villages are not appropriate in ours. The question becomes, is that appropriate — to have a boarding facility in a building that is in proximity to families?”
Trustee Robert M. Vella Jr. responded to Rittel and other residents concerned about the staff living at the club by saying the hearing was not a referendum on whether or not the club was allowed to have staff living on premises.
“Unlike the genesis of this which was much, much different — it was a complete expansion — it has reduced drastically to the point where the applicant is saying we are going to reduce the amount of people,” Vella said. “They are actually agreeing to reduce the amount of people living there.”
Walsh said earlier in the hearing that if the club wanted to increase the number of people living there, he and his client would have to return to the board and present another plan.
Vella stressed to residents that the revised plan calls for fewer housing units and fewer people living at the club.
“If we denied the application, they’d have 12 units and 3 units and they’d be able to house 15 people,” Vella said.
Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner said a decision on the proposal will be made at the trustees’ next agenda meeting, which will be held on Aug. 31.
