Riverhead Planning Board members Thursday night expressed concerns about the adequacy of a fence erected along the Costco Wholesale center boundary line with neighboring Foxwood Village and told Foxwood residents they would discuss it — and the design of the planned landscaped berm — with the developers.
Foxwood residents Robert Hall and Barbara Ross attended the meeting to complain about the fence put up by developers. According to the site plan approval, the developer was required to erect a six-foot “solid wood fence” along the Foxwood boundary line.
At last week’s ZBA hearing on request by the developer for variances to the “dark skies” ordinance, Ross referred to the fence as a “popsicle stick fence.”
“It provides no privacy, no security, anyone can climb it,” Ross told the ZBA.
“It’s a joke,” she said at Thursday’s planning board meeting. “I could climb it — at my age,” Ross said.
Planning Board member Ed Densieski visited Ross’ backyard earlier that evening and agreed.
“That’s not my idea of a solid fence, either,” Densieski said.
“Our engineer is working to expedite the planting of the berm,” Planning Board Chairman Richard O’Dea said, referring to a 30-foot landscaped buffer, consisting of a berm planted with evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubbery, to be planted on the Costco side of the fence. The landscaped buffer was also required by the site plan approval, which allowed the developer to clear-cut the site, including 11.3 wooded acres bordering the Foxwood community, so the entire site could be graded at once. The clear-cutting outraged neighbors, especially those whose homes border the Costco boundary line.
“So the case is closed then? There’s no reason to come back?” asked Hall.
“If we determine that the planting is inadequate… As this goes on and we have to do some negotiations with the applicants,” O’Dea said, “I hope they may be conducive to some of the interests of the neighbors.”
Hall urged the planning board to increase the plantings on the berm.
“A single row of evergreens planted 8 to 10 feet apart is not sufficient,” Hall said.
“We’ll be on top of it,” O’Dea assured him.
New fast-food restaurant plan set for public hearing
A Sept. 8 public hearing has been set on the application of Guddha LLC to build a 24-seat restaurant at 365 Harrison Avenue in Riverhead, just north of the Taco Bell.
Amended site plan of 1998 Peconic LLC approved
The board OK-ed an amended site plan to allow the construction of a warehouse, showroom and sales office on Miller Way, off Edwards Avenue, in Calverton.
The site is the apparent future home of Allied Building Products, which has signed a lease with 1998 Peconic LLC, according to a July 31 article in The Riverhead News-Review.
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