Stefan Soloviev’s Crossroads Atlantic LLC submitted a revamped plan for their massive Colusa conservation subdivision in Cutchogue in mid-February, making most of the changes recommended by Southold’s Planning Director last October and setting the project on a path that will soon include a public hearing.
Pictured Above: Southold Town Planning Director Heather Lanza (left) went over the revised plans with the applicants and the Planning Board on March 3.
This latest submission comes as Soloviev’s Crossroads Atlantic LLC also proposed another smaller 147-acre conservation subdivision in late February on Oregon Road, also in Cutchogue.
Dubbed Cole Harbor, the second proposal would include 13 building lots, mostly on undeveloped land along the Long Island Sound, and one farm parcel of about 94 acres, along an iconic stretch of Oregon Road farmland between Duck Pond Road (north of Depot Lane) and Alvah’s Lane, on the north side of Oregon Road.
The Colusa subdivision of 372 acres, as first reported by The Beacon in October of 2025, would include 47 building lots and 267 acres of farmland that would be preserved by a sale of development rights to Southold Town and Suffolk County.
In October, Southold Planning Director Heather Lanza said the project as initially designed, with a spur road and housing lots in the center of the farmland portion of the property, was not in conformance with the town’s Comprehensive Pan.
In an Oct. 8 letter to the applicants’ attorney, Martin Finnegan, she recommended changes including a “more compact clustered lot design that minimizes the intrusion of residential uses into the farmland,” removal of a spur road and lots in the center of the farmland and shifting a row of building lots that stretch down the center of the properties to keep more farmland contiguous.
She also recommended splitting the large farm parcel created by the subdivision “into three to five farms of comparable size,” each with a small area with its own development-rights-intact, to enable the construction of a farmhouse or an on-farm food processing operation.
The applicants submitted new plans that incorporate those suggestions on Feb. 13, and Ms. Lanza discussed the changes with the Planning Board at a March 3 work session.
“It was incomplete — It didn’t meet town code. It also was inconsistent with our Comprehensive Plan, for a number of reasons,” said Ms. Lanza. “It’s about 11 tax parcels, spanning from Bridge Lane east and the original plan had a spur road coming down the center of the farm with lots on either side…. It didn’t have any lots to go with the farms and the farm was one giant farm.”
“The main changes bring it into compliance with the town code, and brings it into consistency with our Comprehensive Plan, enough to find it complete,” she said. “They’ve taken the spur road out. They’ve centered the side road that goes out to Route 48 and put lots on both sides now. They’ve added a couple lines to split the farmland into three farms and added a house lot to go with each farm.”
Two of those farmhouse lots would be on Bridge Lane and one would be on Route 48.
“They basically did everything … to get it back to us in a form where it’s looking pretty complete,” she said. “It now complies with town code except for a few minor clarifications. It’s now more in line with the goals of the town’s Comprehensive Plan…. We are recommending finding it complete, with a couple minor clarification items.”
Those items include clarifications of easements and what will happen with one existing “derelict structure” on one of the parcels, and a couple minor questions on the applicant’s Environmental Assessment Form, said Ms. Lanza.
Board members expressed interest in deeming the application complete, though they did not hold a formal vote.
A project of this magnitude — the largest conservation subdivision in Southold history, still requires numerous procedural review steps.
Ms. Lanza said the subdivision will be considered a “Type I” action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, because it converts more than 2.5 acres of land in an agricultural district to non-farm use, meaning it would be likely to have a significant adverse environmental impact, requiring extensive environmental review.
She recommended the Planning Department work with a technical consultant to handle the SEQRA determination and review “to ensure we’re following all the rules and getting it right.
The Southold Town Board had voted Feb. 26 to hire the firm Hardesty & Hanover to serve as its on-call SEQRA consultant, and Ms. Lanza recommended that firm be charged with preparing the Colusa SEQRA determination — essentially a decision of whether the project will require a detailed Environmental Impact Statement, a lengthy environmental review process that will involve further public input.
“Once there’s a SEQRA determination, we can schedule a sketch plat public hearing,” said Ms. Lanza. “Those are the next steps.”
A sketch plat is an informal drawing of a subdivision, submitted in advance of detailed plans.
The wild bluffs and beach where the Cole Harbor Soundfront lots and beach access are proposed, on a mid-summer visit by The Beacon.
Meanwhile, the Cole Harbor subdivision application, received by the Planning Department on Feb. 27, has not yet been reviewed by the Planning Board. The applicants had appeared for a pre-submission conference on the project in April of 2025.
Most of the Soundfront building lots in that application are roughly three acres in size, though up to a third of the land on each of those lots is unbuildable due to the bluffs on each property. A 25-foot-wide beach access road extends from one of two cul-de-sacs in the proposed subdivision.
Neither project was on the tentative agenda for the Southold Planning Board’s March 9 work session and regular meeting as of Thursday morning, according to Planning staff. The final agenda is slated to be posted to the town’s website on Friday.
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