Fate of new ‘COPE’ course at Baiting Hollow Boy Scout camp remains uncertain after hearing

A Riverhead Planning Board public hearing on the site plan for a new C.O.P.E. course at the Baiting Hollow Boy Scout Camp concluded Thursday night without any clear resolution of whether the board even has the authority to approve the site plan before it.

The board asked Riverhead’s zoning officer, planning director Rick Hanley, to prioritize issuing a determination on whether the use requires a special permit from the Riverhead Town Board. If Hanley decides a special permit is needed, as argued by attorney Phil Cardinale, who represents neighbors opposed to the proposed use, the planning board will reject the application and the Boy Scouts will have to obtain a town board special permit before resubmitting the site plan for planning board approval.

Hanley said he wanted to listen to comments made at the public hearing before making that determination.

Hanley said he and Deputy Town Attorney William Duffy are currently delving into old zoning documents to find clues about whether or not the Boy Scout camp is a pre-existing, non-conforming use.

“The zoning code separates Boy Scout camps apart from non-conforming use,” Duffy said at the meeting, adding he and Hanley would be reviewing public comments on adoption of a 1971 zoning ordinance for clues and guidance on the topic.

Cardinale and the applicant’s attorney, John Roe, took to the podium several times during last night’s hearing to debate how the project should be handled.

Representing neighbors Bob and Mary Olesiak, Cardinale argued that the matter had been prematurely placed before the planning board. (See prior story.)

“This application requires either an expansion hearing under § 108-51 or a zone change from the town board,” Carindale said. The suggestion that the proposed project is grandfathered in as a pre-existing, non-conforming use is “arbitrary and capricious,” since statements by Boy Scout representatives made during the opening session of the hearing April 18 acknowledged the new course would be open to the public for a fee.

The course would “never be used for public purposes,” the Scouts’ attorney responded. “It’s not an amusement park,” Roe said. “Anyone who comes has to get a permit from the camp itself.”

The course would be most used in the summer and activity at the site during the rest of the year would be “sporadic at best,” said Roe.

He said the spot was chosen for its lack of foliage because the state Department of Environmental Conservation restricts the removal of trees, shrubs and flowers.

“I think we’re working with the DEC,” Roe said, adding the agency is “really enamored” of the site’s use as an obstacle course.

Roe also addressed the question of public use of the park by pointing to examples where the public has used the camp since its establishment in 1929, including church groups and Little Flower School in Wading River.

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