Bob Morrow, the developer behind a major retail and residential development project proposed in Tuckahoe, made donations to the campaigns of three Town Board members late last year—just months before going before the Town Board to request a special zoning change only that panel can grant.

In past years, those donations would have been revealed in the Town Board members’ annual financial disclosure forms: the law required that town officials list the names of those who made donations greater than $1,000 to their campaigns on a financial disclosure form before acting on any matter that would benefit the donor, according to Assistant Town Attorney Joe Burke. But the Town Board voted in April to change the law governing the documents: Now, the State Board of Elections online listing of campaign contributions stands as the disclosure.

The Board of Elections website shows that Mr. Morrow, his company, Kenilworth Equity LTD, and his daughter Dina Bean have made approximately $23,000 in campaign donations to Town Board candidates over the past five years. Of that total, the largest amount given to any single candidate, $4,550, went to Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst’s campaign. An analysis of her 330 donors shows that Kenilworth Equities is among Ms. Throne-Holst’s 10 largest donors.

“It doesn’t affect me,” Ms. Throne-Holst said Tuesday of the donations. “I’ve taken in $100,000 of contributions in office. Never once has it influenced how I legislate.”

Mr. Morrow has been before the Town Board twice since March 2010 to present his proposed project, dubbed “Tuckahoe Main Street,” which would feature a 40,000-square-foot King Kullen, two free-standing restaurants, two restaurants incorporated into larger buildings, 12 to 13 small stores, and 12 apartments on 12 acres off County Road 39 just outside Southampton Village. In April, the Town Board voted unanimously to consider Mr. Morrow’s request for a planned development district, a special zoning designation granted by the Town Board that would be required for the project, which would not be permitted by current zoning at the site. About a month later, the board voted 4-1, with Chris Nuzzi dissenting, to commence a state-mandated environmental review of the PDD proposal.

An earlier form of the proposal, which featured just a King Kullen and a few retail spaces, had been put forth by Ed Glackin, the vice president of real estate for the King Kullen Company, in 2008.

Mr. Morrow also said that he had no direct involvement with the construction project until March 2010, when he officially became a partner with Southampton Ventures LLC, the entity that initiated the development and first applied to the Southampton Town Board for special zoning allowances in the spring of 2009. He did acknowledge that he had been negotiating the deal for four to five months prior—which would be roughly the time of the fall 2009 town elections.

Still, Mr. Morrow contends that he had “no inkling whatsoever” in September—when he said he made many of the donations—that he would be involved in the Tuckahoe development project, in which Mr. Glackin still held an interest. Mr. Morrow, who also built the King Kullen complex on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays, said that he has been contributing to political parties locally since the 1990s.

“Whatever contributions I made, I made,” Mr. Morrow said Tuesday. “I live in the community. I contribute to charities. I contribute to a lot of things. I do what I feel like doing.”

According to State Board of Elections records, Mr. Morrow, Kenilworth Equities LTD and Ms. Bean donated a total of $3,950 to the “Anna Throne-Holst for Supervisor” campaign in the fall of 2009. But the records indicate the money was donated after the November 3 election; prior to the election, Mr. Morrow had personally donated $600 to her campaign. He also donated to Ms. Throne-Holst’s opponent, Republican nominee Linda Kabot.

Mr. Morrow said Tuesday that he made all of the donations before the election, but that Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign workers deposited some of the checks more than two months later. For example, he said he wrote a check of $1,200 on September 9, 2009, but that his bank records show it was not deposited until November 27, 2009. Board of Elections records show the donation as received on November 25, a time when Ms. Throne-Holst was still a councilwoman but preparing to take over as supervisor after the November 3 election.

Kenilworth Equities Ltd. made two $1,000 donations to Ms. Throne-Holst on November 16, according to state records. Mr. Morrow noted that those checks, while made on the Kenilworth Equities account, are actually from Hamptons Sunrise LLC and Hamptons Bellows LLC, two companies related to a condominium project in Hampton Bays he is involved with. That project, which calls for condominiums in the hamlet, has not been discussed publicly at Town Hall in recent years.