Southworth, a Boston-based developer and operator of golf membership clubs and resorts is proposing through the entity South Rock LLC to build an 18-hole golf course and country club along with approximately 75 to 80 townhomes and single-family homes on a 214.41-acre property in Mount Pleasant.
The project would be known as Fieldwood Farm and would be located on property at 835-855 Sleepy Hollow Road.
According to Attorney David Steinmetz of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz, “Southworth has over twenty years of expertise in developing and operating golf and country club communities, with clubs across the United States, and stretching internationally as far as the Bahamas and Scotland. Like all of Southworth’s clubs, Fieldwood Farm will have an unmistakable character unique to itself and in harmony with its unmatched natural surroundings and location.”
Proposed layout of Fieldwood Farm development in Mount Pleasant.
Southworth has a total of seven clubs at: Great Abaco in the Bahamas; Telluride in Colorado; Aldie in Virginia; Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts; Argyll in Scoltland; Haverhill in Massachusetts; and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
Steinmetz said that the property planned for development formerly had belonged to the Rockefeller Family and that several members of that family are supportive of the project. He said that Southworth would coordinate with the Rockefeller Family members to make sure that the property’s history is honored, including preservation of most of the existing buildings on the property.
Steinmetz noted that the developer is seeking a zoning change that would allow a for-profit membership club on the property in addition to site plan and environmental approvals.
The developer claims in its petition for a zoning text amendment that proposed use of the property is consistent with other uses in the nearby area, and points to an operating country club that it located across the street. The developer also says that the project would generate significant new tax revenues “by realizing the property’s full economic potential with the new club and residential units, which would also serve as a source of sustained patronage of local businesses in the town, as well as generate new employment opportunities.”
The petition says that the project conforms with the town’s 2022 Comprehensive Plan in a number of ways including with respect to housing demand, golf clubs and open space, and balancing natural resource preservation with development needs. It says that high demand for single-family homes in Mount Pleasant has resulted in increased costs and less inventory of homes on the market and that the project would not only increase the number of housing units in the town but also add to the available variety.
Mount Pleasant’s Town Board voted unanimously to send the project to the town’s Planning Board for review.