Listen to this articleAfter work began last year on a model at a townhouse project in Fort Salonga, construction of the entire development started Monday.
The over-55 age-restricted development from Hauppauge-based Northwind Group will bring 74 townhouses to a portion of the Indian Hills Country Club.
Pre-construction sales have already begun on the project known as the Preserve at Indian Hills and the development’s first phase of 24 homes is more than 90 percent sold.
The townhomes were built under a cluster provision in the Town of Huntington’s single-family zoning code to allow for maximum preservation of open space by clustering homes. The project preserves the 130-acre, 18-hole golf course and the country club, which has more than 300 members, continues to operate.
The 2,700-square-foot townhomes range in price from $1.4 million to $1.8 million and will have three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Though the project will have 74 townhouses, Northwind can eventually build an additional 12 units.
First pitched eight years ago, the project received final approval from the Town of Huntington Planning Board in April 2023. However, the development was stalled by lawsuits filed by a group of residents called the Fort Salonga Property Owners Association, which tried to stop the project.
The two Article 78 lawsuits filed by the group in August 2023 claimed that the Huntington Planning Board and the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals acted improperly in approving the project. The lawsuit against the ZBA alleged that “an unqualified alternate” board member cast the tie-breaking vote in Dec. 2022 to approve the condo project. The lawsuit against the Planning Board claimed that the board failed to hold a “duly noticed public hearing” prior to granting conditional final approval to the project and that it also failed to comply with the state’s environmental review obligations.
But two State Supreme Court decisions in Nov. 2023 rejected the challenges, with Acting State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti ruling that the plaintiffs petition was brought “long after the Planning Board’s decision-making process had concluded and the time to commence any legal challenge had expired.” In the lawsuit challenging the ZBA, the judge ruled that the participation of the alternate board member in the vote to approve the development was “lawful and in compliance with town code.”
The Preserve at Indian Hills plans also call for the construction of a new 26,000-square-foot clubhouse to be used by residents and members of the country club, and though development of the clubhouse has also been stalled by a lawsuit, Northwind principal Jim Tsunis says he plans to start work on the clubhouse in March.
“After several years of lawsuits by a small group of neighboring homeowners, we continue to move forward with this extraordinary development,” Tsunis told LIBN.
Tsunis said he expects the model townhouse at the development will open next month.