Attorney Stephen Daly with Citizen Environmental Law, PLLC, submitted a number of objections to the proposed development at the former Point Chautauqua Golf Course on behalf of his clients Chautauqua Protest during October 2025 Chautauqua Town Board meeting. P-J file photo by Gregory Bacon

A group of Dewittville area residents have filed an Article 78 lawsuit seeking to overturn the Chautauqua Town Board’s approval of the Sunset View development at the former Chautauqua Point Golf Course.

Chautauqua town officials approved the project in January. The $70 million development will include condominiums, townhouses, single family homes, and a restaurant/tap house. The original plan has been modified and scaled back a few times. The development now calls for 174 residential units among the condos, townhouses and single houses. The restaurant/tap house would be open to the general public. New roads would be constructed. There would be walking trails, tennis courts, and 40 seasonal boat docks open to the public.

Chautauqua Protect, led by Garrett Hicks, the group’s president, filed the lawsuit Friday in state Supreme Court in Mayville. It is asking state Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon to annul, void and vacate the approval of the special use permit for the development; stay any site work, permits or construction until the case is decided; and, if Hanlon agrees, to give instructions on how the town should proceed.

“The Town Board ignored critical record evidence that the project risks financial burdens and adverse impacts on adjacent property owners – issues that the PUD article requires the board to affirmatively negate – including multi-year construction impacts the board itself labeled ‘unavoidable’ and ‘adverse,’ viewshed changes, new commercial traffic and noise, and visitor pressure from the new restaurant, public dock and short-term rentals,” attorney Stephen Daly wrote representing Chautauqua Protects. “The board’s cursory conclusions lack the reasoned elaboration called for under the PUD article and New York law. Because the board approved a PUD that does not meet the mandatory prerequisites and failed to grapple with contrary evidence on fiscal and neighborhood impacts, its determination is affected by errors of law and arbitrary and capricious. The court should annul the special use permit and remit the proceedings consistent with the law.”

In July 2023, 1200 Group LLC purchased the former golf course property on Route 430 in the hamlet of Dewittville for $2.2 million. There were additional properties purchased by them as well. The golf course had been closed since 2021. In August of 2024, Ellicott Development, which owns 1200 Group, LLC, revealed its plans for the property, which it described as a resort style community experience. Meetings where the development is on the agenda have been packed with neighbors, many of whom have concerns with the development. Some have argued the development allows for too many people to live there, while others have continually called on town officials to halt the project, saying the property should be donated to a non-profit organization that protects the lake.

The town board has had multiple hearings on the project and it has been backed by the Chautauqua County Planning Board and the town zoning/planning board.

Among the issues Chautauqua Protect raises in its filing is that the project exceeds the maximum density requirement under town laws by including 20 more dwelling units than the minimum lot size under town codes allow; that the subdivision style housing is subject to the town’s standard zoning rules and can’t be part of a Planned Unit Development; and that the development violates “anti-funneling” regulations intended to prevent developments with small areas of Chautauqua Lake frontage to offer lake access to a large number of people. The project has 190 feet of lake frontage but would offer lake access on a first-come, first-serve basis to more than 170 residential units, their guests and the general public.

The lawsuit also argues that town’s approval relies on incorrect legal conclusions, that the project has the potential to create financial burdens on the community and that it will create adverse impacts on adjacent property owners – particularly while Sunset View is under construction – and from part of the project’s use as an AirBnB.

“Chautauqua Protect submitted evidence to the Town Board showing the negative effects of AirBnBs on surrounding communities, especially when the ‘AirBnBs are operated by commercial property owners rather than mom and pop hosts,’ as would be the case here,” Daly wrote. “The Town Board did not address or reconcile this evidence when it concluded, cursorily, that the project will not result in adverse impacts upon adjacent property owners.”

Chautauqua Protect has also filed a challenge to the town code enforcement officer’s determination that the project complied with town zoning laws. That appeal is still pending. The group is also challenging the Chautauqua Town Board’s enactment of Local Law 2 of 2025 which authorized the project’s commercial use. That case was filed on Jan. 14, but nothing has yet happened other than the lawsuit being served upon the developer and Town Board.

“Petitioner has no adequate remedy at law,” Daly wrote in his Feb. 13 filing.