A new hard cidery on Sound Avenue with a tasting room and production facility got the green light from Riverhead Planning Board yesterday, ending months of contentious negotiations between the town and the owners of the ciderhouse.
Riverhead Ciderhouse will be located at the intersection of Sound and Osborn avenues and will produce, bottle and sell hard cider in an existing 108,000-square-foot warehouse.
The proposal was met with controversy when it was first announced in March. Flyers distributed in neighborhood mailboxes claimed that the ciderhouse would become a “bar/nightclub-tourist magnet,” and residents voiced concerns at public meetings that the ciderhouse would draw crowds, create noise and increase traffic on the already-congested Sound Avenue.
Since then, Riverhead planning board members have worked with the owner of the site, who has been using the property to store wine since 2012, to address residents’ concerns.
The new site plan includes a number of legally-binding conditions prohibiting outdoor music and special events like festivals or fairs. They also require the ciderhouse’s tasting room and other public activities to close no later than 9 p.m.
“There are a lot of covenants in here to make sure they are a good neighbor,” said planning board member Ed Densieski at the meeting last night. “I think it’s going to be a great addition to Sound Avenue.”
Planning board member Stanley Carey said the ciderhouse is “consistent” with other businesses on Sound Avenue. “Not even a mile to the west of this property is Long Island Vodka, where they have outdoor parties and vodka tastings with very few limitations,” Carey said. “I don’t see the fairness in denying something like this, especially when the applicant has agreed to special conditions.”
Much of the controversy surrounding the ciderhouse has focused on the question of the legality of such a facility operating on a property that is within the Agricultural Protection Zone.
Because of its zoning, the 7.3-acre property is limited to a very specific set of agricultural uses. Opponents of the ciderhouse have argued that the plan goes far beyond those uses.
“No retail is permitted on the site,” said Phil Barbato at the meeting last night. “They’re not growing anything, but they’re going to sell things in the store.”
In 2000, the Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals granted Blackman, the then-owner of the property, a use variance, allowing warehouse use on the property as well as customary accessory uses to warehouse use.
In the ciderhouse’s site plan, a food processing facility is proposed as one of the customary accessory uses to warehouse use, and the proposed tasting facility and “farm store” would be an accessory use to the food processing facility.
“Even if you buy all the ‘accessory to accessory to accessory’ arguments, it stretches credibility to call this a farm,” Barbato said.
Residents last night also brought up past zoning board decisions prohibiting retail on the property.
“Has that restriction been lifted?” Jamesport resident Angela DeVito asked. “Because you are proposing in your resolution to allow for retail use, and there is a prohibition that has followed with the sale of this land that says there is to be no retail trade.”
Board members would not answer her question.
Barbato pointed out that John King, the owner of the property, has filed a lawsuit against the town and planning board members in response to the site plan’s initial rejection.
“Is it wise for the town to do anything on this matter until the lawsuit is resolved?” Barbato said.
Despite the concerns voiced at last night’s meeting, the planning board passed the site plan in a unanimous vote.
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