A new 60,000-square-foot retail center on Route 58 gained preliminary site plan approval from the Riverhead Planning Board Thursday.
Garsten Retail Center, located on 12 acres of undeveloped land just east of the Riverhead Centre (Home Depot) shopping center, will now move to the final stage of site plan review by planners.
Applicant Irwin Garsten proposes to a 56,608-square-foot building consisting of five retail stores The site is located in the Destination Retail zoning use district.
The preliminary approval, accompanied by a determination that the plan will have no significant adverse environmental impacts, came after discussion of water district easements, the site’s landscaping plan and questions about the types and sizes of trees proposed for planting.
Planning board chairman Stan Carey said he could not yet support moving forward with the review process because of too many unresolved issues, including whether the water district wanted an easement on the site. Also, Carey said, “the land clearning language [in the resolution before the board] does not go far enough” and the town’s engineering consultant Vinny Guadiello made “significant comments” that should first be addressed, Carey said.
Garsten’s attorney, Peter Danowski, said everything the board required can and would be addressed in the final map.
“If you’re not satisfied, you won’t adopt it,” Danowski said. “It’s been a long time since the public hearing,” he said, urging the board to move the process forward. The hearing took place on Feb. 4, while the initial application dates back to December 2011.
Vice chairman Joseph Baier also voted against the approval, saying that he thought the unresolved questions could be answered before the next meeting in two weeks and the board could act on it then.
But three board members — former chairman Richard O’Dea, Ed Densieski and George Nunnaro— agreed with Danowski that the application could move forward.
“Every one of Stanley’s concerns is 100-percent correct, but i think they’re all doable for the final,” Densieski said before voting. “I hate delay for the sake of delay.”
Retail building on the corner of Route 58 and Kroemer Avenue
An updated site plan for a new retail building proposed for the corner of Route 58 and Kroemer Avenue was approved by the board Thursday. The 14,400-square-foot building will be built on the southwest corner of Kroemer and Route 58 (on the now-vacant parcel opposite Carl’s Equipment). A site plan for this location was originally approved on July 17, 2008. That approval, extended once, expired in 2012.
Thursday’s approval was given to an updated amended site plan submitted in July, after the Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals granted the owner variances for lot coverage and landscaped areas.
The approval was unanimous.
20 West Main Street rear patio
An administrative site plan was approved (5-0) to allow the property owner to construct a new patio, walkways, stairs, fencing and lighting behind the building.
Georgia Malone, principal in the company that owns the building (the former Allied Optical building) said whatever permission had been granted by the former to allow the pizzeria next door to access the restaurant by way of a door onto the patio was an informal arrangement and that she had revoked permission when she took title to the property “for liability insurance purposes.”
The new patio and walkway, which will be fenced in, will be for the private use of her tenants only, Malone said.
84 Lumber
The board also unanimously approved the final site plan of 84 Lumber, which is reopening its West Main Street location.
Brixmor Property Group/Costco site
The board held an extensive discussion with the applicant’s representatives about a new site plan submitted for 120,450 square feet of retail space on the Route 58 site where Costco Wholesale Club was built in 2013. See separate story.
Public hearings set
The board set Oct. 6 public hearings on the following applications:
Lot line amendment TSA Capital/Riverhead Church of Christ- TSA Capital is the owner of the
gas station on corner of Ostrander Avenue and Route 58. TSA is withdrawing its site plan application, attorney Chris Kent told the board Thursday. “The applicant is not sure of a tenant yet,” Kent said.
Riverhead Cement Block minor subdivision – Property located at 1521 Roanoke Avenue, located in the Residence B40 zoning use district.
Baiting Hollow Condominium Association – application to build a deck on an existing residential building.
The planning board’s Oct. 6 meeting is an evening meeting beginning at 7 p.m.
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