Jamesport residents protest plans to expand Main Road strip mall, where owner wants to add 28,000 sq. ft. grocery

An expansion plan by the owner of Jamesport Plaza, located on the corner of Main Road and Washington Avenue, drew a slew of community opposition at last night’s Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, where a variance application was the subject of a lengthy public hearing.

Jamesport Plaza LLC wants to build a 28,379 square foot addition to its existing strip mall, a nearly three-fold increase in size.

The addition, proposed for the western end of the strip center, would house a chain grocery store, architect James DeLuca, the applicant’s representative, told ZBA members last night.

DeLuca said the property owner has several interested food store chains “on the level of Trader Joe’s, Wild By Nature and Key Foods. Those are some of the interested parties.” He said the owner had no written agreement yet with any prospective tenant for the new store, which is significantly larger than any of the other nine storefronts in the center — four of which are currently vacant.

The addition would feature a drive-thru window for grocery pickup, DeLuca said and the proposed site plan shows two entrances/exits on Washington Avenue — which the architect said would be good for residents along that road, who would no longer have to turn onto Main Road to enter the shopping center. That suggestion drew jeers from the audience.

The new construction would require clearing of a large portion of the 4.4-acre that has remained in a natural wooded state.

The proposed action would require variances from zoning code requirements concerning maximum impervious surfaces and the number of parking spaces.

Jamesport Plaza LLC is asking permission to have impervious surfaces cover 83 percent of the site instead of the maximum 60 percent and to have 166 parking spaces instead of the required 171.

DeLuca said the owner could avoid the need for variances from the board of appeals if he reduced the size of the proposed addition by 1,500 square feet and used gravel instead of asphalt for some of the new parking area — which DeLuca characterized as impractical.

Addressing the existing vacancies in the center, some of which are long-term, DeLuca said the owner “has a few tenants coming in,” including a Dunkin’ Donuts, which is presently pursuing an application to the county health department, he said.

A parade of residents went to the podium to voice opposition to the plan, citing increased traffic on Washington Avenue and the surrounding area, increased light pollution, which many said is already a problem, and worries about rats that some neighbors said have been a longstanding nuisance originating from the center.

Save Main Road founder Larry Simms led the charge, urging the board to deny both variances.

Citing the high vacancy rate in the center over time, Simms said adding more space there is “a spectacularly bad idea.” While business owners in a free market are allowed to make bad decisions, Simms said, the ZBA must not violate the town zoning code and master plan in furtherance of those bad decisions.

Simms urged the board to look at the proposal in the context of another controversial development plan just east of the site. “Take these two projects together and it’s like plopping a Wal-Mart in the middle of a farm field,” he said.

The intent of the hamlet center zoning use district, according to the town code, Simms said, is to have “small clusters of shops and professional services in a rural setting with residential character, pedestrian friendly, small scale and clustered in a campus-style pattern.”

“The mall we’ve got violates all six of those,” Simms said, “but it’s the mall we’ve got. Allowing it to expand violates the intent of the master plan and is a slap in the face to everybody that lives in this town.”

Section 108-286 (d)(3) of the zoning code flatly prohibits single retail stores with a floor area exceeding 10,000 square feet, Simms reminded the board.

Longtime Washington Avenue resident Gordon Huszagh said ingress and egress onto Washington Avenue so close to Main Road would exacerbate already-mounting traffic problems at the busy intersection.

Denise Hansen, a 37-year resident of Washington Avenue said the expansion would not be in keeping with the character of the area and urged its rejection. She presented the board with a petition in opposition she said was signed by 150 residents.

Linda O’Kula, who said she has lived on Washington Avenue her entire life said she was “shocked” by the enormity of the plan, which is “mind-boggling,” she said. “It will affect our quality of life enormously.” She asked that a traffic study be undertaken.

“I love it there and I plan on staying there until I die — and I don’t want to do it in my front yard with a car coming across my lawn because he’s doing 60 to go get a gallon of milk,” said 29-year Washington Avenue resident Randall Clement.

ZBA member Leroy Barnes, former assessor and building department administrator in Riverhead, said he thinks there might be covenants on the property that limit or even prohibit expansion on he vacant portion of the site. He asked DeLuca to submit a title abstract containing a copy of all recorded covenants and restrictions.

ZBA attorney Scott DeSimone, who represents the town in tax certiorari actions brought by property owners grieving their tax bills, said the owner’s attorney in the certiorari action “argued there is no surplus land there, in fact argued rather strenuoulsy for several years that there was no ability to expand the size of that building.”

Title to the property was transferred in 2002 to the LLC from longtime owner Alan Cardinale, according to county land records. Cardinale, who also owns the Mattituck plaza shopping center, is the brother of former Riverhead supervisor Phil Cardinale, a lawyer who maintains his law office in Jamesport Plaza. Currently the other tenants there are the U.S. Postal Service, which has the Jamesport Post Office next to the law office, Dellaquila Beauty Salon, Lenny’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, and Kam Hung Kitchen.

The hearing was held over to Jan. 14.