Wading River residents press officials for moratorium

More than two dozen residents of the Wading River hamlet converged upon the Town Hall meeting room last night to press their demand for a short-term moratorium on commercial development in the Route 25A corridor.

With members of the audience waving hand-printed signs bearing pro-moratorium messages, several speakers beseeched to board to reconsider the prospect of a moratorium while a planning consultant hired by the town completes a new study of zoning and land use in the corridor.

“A moratorium is the only logical thing to do,” said Dominique Mendez of Wading River, speaking on behalf of the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition. “Approving projects before the study is complete makes no sense,” she said.

Projects currently being considered for the 25A corridor “have the potential to demonstrably change the rural character of the area,” Wading River Civic Association representative Alan Hurley said.

There are three proposed developments currently in the pipeline for commercially zoned land along 25A from Wading River-Manor Road to Sound Avenue. The current zoning allows office, restaurant and retail uses. Area residents are concerned about the additional traffic burden on the often already-congested two-lane road, as well as the impact of new retail development on the hamlet’s character. They have opposed a shopping center plan for the site immediately to the east of the CVS and another shopping center plan on the triangular parcel at the intersection of 25A and Sound Avenue, adjacent to the Inn at East Wind.

In response to residents’ complaints, the Town Board in June hired consultants BFJ Planning to take a look at the zoning in the corridor, which was last revised during the comprehensive planning process at the beginning of this decade. BFJ has just conducted a study for the Town of Brookhaven for the Route 25A corridor from Mount Sinai to the Riverhead Town line. Riverhead agreed to pay BFJ $42,000 for the study.

Residents have been lobbying for a moratorium for months, conducting a petition drive and letter- and postcard-writing campaigns.

The Town Board has refused to enact a moratorium.

Supervisor Sean Walter last night tried to convince residents it isn’t necessary, arguing that there’s currently only one proposal that’s “real” — a plan by East Wind owner Kenney Barra to build a retail shopping plaza at the intersection of 25A and Sound Avenue. Walter said he believes the site for which a commercial plaza is planned next to CVS will be purchased by the county for a park. He also said he thought the developer of another proposal, dubbed “Venezia Square,” was “scared away” by residents’ objections. That developer, he said, filed an application but never paid the application fees, and was therefore not a “real” proposal either.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” the supervisor said. “I want the public to understand. There’s not this massive mega-development coming.”

That didn’t seem to change sentiment in the audience or the mind of civic activist Mendez.

“You can’t count on these things,” Mendez answered. “You have to look at the zoning and know what could happen.”