Planning Board Approves North Fork Hotel, Restaurant Project

Developer Jonathan Tibbett has been trying to get a hotel and restaurant project off the ground in Southold for years. It may soon be a reality.

The Southold Town Planning Board preliminarily approved the Enclaves Hotel and Restaurant project at 56655 Main Road on the North Fork, the Suffolk Times reported. The decision pushes the project ahead, continuing its slow crawl to actualization.

The developer plans to convert a 3,000-square-foot house with a 600-square-foot addition into a mixed-use property. It will have a 74-seat restaurant and a 44-key hotel, which will take up two floors. There will also be four detached cottages, an event space, an outdoor swimming pool and 132 parking spaces.

The project on the nearly seven-acre parcel will echo the lineage of the site, which was once home to the Hedges bed and breakfast. The project has been met with community resistance almost every step of the way, though.

Local residents opposed the development on the grounds of potential traffic and noise issues, as well as threats to the community character. That wasn’t enough to deter the town’s Zoning Board of Approvals, which granted conditional approval in 2021.

The conditions for that approval included a ban on outdoor events and a capacity of 100 guests for indoor events. There can also be no outdoor music at the hotel and amenities can only be used by overnight guests.

There’s still some work to be done before Tibbett can move forward. The state’s Department of Transportation must provide a highway work permit and the Suffolk County Department of Health Services needs to approve the project.

The Town Board also needs to sign off on a bond estimate that the Planning Board approved for the project. Only then can the Planning Board grant final approval.

The project’s architect believes final approval could come within 60 days.

— Holden Walter-Warner