Golf Course Progress

Anyone who doubts the Bistrian family's resolve to complete an 18-hole golf course on its 124 acres along Accabonac Highway, Abraham's Path, and Stony Hill Road, need only take a drive past the site.

Fairways and greens are being laid out and graded, pins and flags are already up, and work is progressing on what could be the key to completing the family's controversial Stony Hill Country Club: bringing public water to the property. Though costly, public water could be used to irrigate much of the golf course, as well as to serve an eventual clubhouse.

A local plumbing crew was busy Tuesday tinkering with a water main extension completed several weeks ago to bring in public water. According to a contract between Barry Bistrian and the Suffolk County Water Authority obtained by The Star, the Bistrians spent $21,354 to extend the main, on Accabonac Highway, by 170 feet to reach the golf course.

Small Well Installed

Though Mr. Bistrian spoke at length last week about the overall project, he could not be reached this week for comment on the water main. Nor would the Bistrians' lawyer, William Esseks of Riverhead, comment on the matter.

In March, after trying for two years to get permission from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to install two high-capacity wells on the land, the family installed a single low-capacity well. It did not need a state permit, since its pumping capacity is less than 45 gallons per minute.

The larger wells proposed would each pump up to 350 gallons per minute. That application has been held up by the prospect of a lengthy environmental review, not to mention a lawsuit.

Large Wells Held Up

The Bistrians sued the state early this year after the D.E.C. ordered an environmental impact statement on the application. Among other things, the family argued the agency had approved other, more powerful, irrigation wells less than a mile away without any environmental review - namely, the wells at the Quail Hill farm, owned by the Peconic Land Trust.

Neighboring landowners and others who oppose the golf course cite irrigation and groundwater concerns as the major factors. Opponents warn that aside from pesticides and fertilizers trickling into the Stony Hill aquifer below the course, heavy irrigation could suck contaminants from below the neighboring town landfill into the public groundwater supply.

George Hammarth, the D.E.C. permit administrator handling the golf course application, said such concerns were behind the decision to require an environmental study. He acknowledged, however, that if there were no wells proposed, the agency would have no jurisdiction.

No Town Oversight

"If they chose to use public water and didn't propose the wells, we would effectively drop out of the picture," said Mr. Hammarth.

Nor does East Hampton Town have jurisdiction over the golf course. Though the family will still need Planning Board authorization for any future clubhouse, the town's environmental review ceased two years ago, when, in a major victory for the Bistrians, the board's lawyer, Richard Whalen, ruled that approval for the course granted by the 1978 Planning Board remained valid.

With 1,000 pages of an environmental impact statement already completed, the family promptly pulled its application to the town, and focused on the narrower well application before the D.E.C. The Planning Board handed over "lead agency" status to the D.E.C. last year.

Working Range

Work on the course has progressed quietly but steadily since then. Many of the fairways and greens have been graded and shaped, and a driving range is already in operation.

"Sixty to 70 percent of the major work for the golf course is completed; now it's mostly finesse work," said Mr. Bistrian, who has acted as spokesman for the family.

As for the clubhouse and other amenities, Mr. Bistrian said, "We've been more or less going along piecemeal, and in the meantime, we've been discussing things with a few architects - famous ones."

Still, he said, "We're not going to be before the town for a while. We'll probably have the golf course done before we come to the town again."

Environmental Review

Jeffrey Bragman, a lawyer for the Citizens for Clean Water, a group opposed to the course, charged the Bistrians had been trying to skirt environmental review of the course altogether.

"We still think there is a tremendous amount of environmental review to be done," he said. "They don't want environmental review . . . and while the review is stalled they're trying to do as much work as they can do to make the golf course look like a fait accompli."

Mr. Bistrian had a different take. "Just by doing this [continuing work on the course], people can see what will eventually evolve out there, and I don't think they'll find it unattractive."

Private Club

While the Bistrians originally expressed interest in a semi-public course, Town Code restrictions have prompted the family to propose a private membership club instead. The code forbids a public golf course in a residential area.

Mr. Bistrian said the eventual membership will determine what the club proposes for clubhouse facilities.

"We're going to have to go with a membership golf course," he said, adding that "the membership should have a say in how big [the clubhouse] is and what it would look like."

The location of the clubhouse would remain as it was in the 1978 site plan - on the east side of Accabonac Highway, just north of the four-way intersection with Abraham's Path. The property lies within three fire districts, East Hampton, Springs, and Amagansett.

Parking Improved

Though site plan approval will be needed for the clubhouse and its parking, a parking area has already been improved to serve the course-to-be.

"That parking area was already cleared and graded off," Mr. Bistrian said. "We just touched it up a little and threw a little gravel on it."

The driving range is being used privately, he said, and golf pros have been giving occasional lessons there. Meanwhile, the unfinished course has already seen a few rounds played.

"We put some pins up," Mr. Bistrian said. "We're more or less hacking around and feeling things out."

South Fork C.C.

As the Stony Hill golf course presses on without the town's review, the nearby South Fork Country Club is fully engaged with the Planning Board. The club, which seeks to build a second nine holes on Old Stone Highway, was recently ordered to provide an environmental impact statement on the plan.

The D.E.C.'s Mr. Hammarth maintained that the Stony Hill course should be subject to an environmental study as well, with a scope broader than simply the irrigation wells.

"We believe the completion of the country club use is subject to [the State Environmental Quality Review Act]," he said. "Our position is, SEQRA review needs to be done on the remaining work."

Meanwhile, the head of the Suffolk County Water Authority confirmed this week that other golf courses in the county do irrigate with public water, although it is considerably more expensive than using private wells.