LITTLE COMPTON, R.I. (AP) – Interested in living at one of New England’s few vineyards without getting your hands dirty? Then the owners of Sakonnet Vineyards may have a deal for you.

Facing retirement, Earl and Susan Samson are attempting to realize the financial benefits of developing real estate on their 170-acre property without setting off a wave of suburban sprawl in one of Rhode Island’s smallest towns.

Their idea is to sell off five, 13-acre lots, or mini-farms, centered on 100 acres of vineyards. The parcels would allow buyers to experience life at an operating vineyard producing cabernet franc, pinot noir and chardonnay without the burdens of ownership.

“We’re saving agriculture by reason of the subdivision,” said Earl Samson, 73. “If you wanted to be greedy, you could have put in 35 to 40 houses there. That was not our intention.”

Ranches in California and out West have tried similar development plans, Samson said.

“For a special few, a coveted lifestyle is available without the work or responsibility of winery ownership,” explains one Sakonnet marketing brochure.

The Samsons created worry among town residents several years ago when they attempted to sell the winery, which they valued at $11 million to $13 million. The couple said they didn’t receive serious offers for the business, although they got proposals to turn the vineyards into a golf course or dozens of homes.

Those offers unnerved town residents and disheartened the owners.

“We put so much time into this operation,” Samson said. “We want to make sure it continues, no matter what happens to us.”

If Samson can sell the five lots this time, he has offered to sell the development rights on the 100 acres of vineyard to a local land trust, a legal move protecting that land from further development.

Little Compton planning officials have given the project preliminary approval. Town council President Robert Mushen said he believes town residents are generally supportive.

“It’s a vineyard and has that character, and the idea of it being replaced by row after row of houses is what caused the other reaction,” he said.