An environmental impact study will be required for the proposed change of zone that would allow fallow Mill Road farmland to be developed with age-restricted condominiums and and an assisted living facility will require an environmental impact statement, Supervisor Sean Walter said in a phone interview last week.
The planning department has completed its review of the applicant’s environmental assessment form and the project will receive a positive declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, Walter said. That designation means planners found the project is likely to have significant environmental impacts and requires a more extensive environmental review.
The change of zone petition was filed by Genrac Associates LLC, which is seeking a change from agricultural protection zone to retirement community zone in order to develop the 162-unit assisted living complex known as Concordia Riverhead.
Genrac Associates principal Ronald Devito could not immediately be reached for comment.
Residents, farmers, civic leaders, and environmental advocates spoke against the zone change for more than an hour during a Feb. 17 public hearing on the application. The loss of prime agricultural soil and high-density development without the purchase of farmland development rights in the town’s designated agricultural preservation area were of principal concern to members of the farming community and environmental advocates, while area residents complained of anticipated traffic impacts.
Councilman John Dunleavy, who has been an outspoken advocate for the proposal and sponsored legislation in 2012 amending the Retirement Community zoning code to allow for the construction of assisted living facilities, said he’s not surprised by the planning department’s conclusion about the need for an impact statement.
“Once the supervisor doesn’t want something, it doesn’t happen,” Dunleavy said. “He controls town hall. He doesn’t want this, so he’s going to do everything possible to stop it. Don’t tell me this isn’t a setup,” he said.
“We opened the door when we started selling senior housing in Riverhead. Now he wants to close the door and not give them affordable assisted living so they can live out their years in dignity,” Dunleavy said.
Walter says he is not opposed to affordable assisted living units, but is not convinced the Mill Road site is the right place for it.
“I’m hoping we can do something with the site in Jamesport,” he said referring to the 43-acre Main Road, Jamesport site where a prior owner once planned to build a 42,000-square-foot commercial complex. A 10-acre portion of that property would be developed with a two-story, 163-unit assisted living facility, under a plan advanced by the Nassau County developer who bought the land in a foreclosure sale few years ago. The new owner would be willing to sell the development rights on the remaining 34 acres, the developer told the town board at a January work session.
The Mill Road farmland has lain fallow for years, but how many years is a bone of contention.
Dunleavy has said the land has not been farmed for 30 years, a position advanced by the applicant. But records in the Riverhead Town assessors office indicate the property was being farmed at least as recently as 1998, according to assessor Laverne Tennenberg.
The property has been in the same ownership since 1986, according to town tax records. It has since changed hands but it was not an arm’s length sale according to tax records, Tennenberg said. Originally owned by a group of individual investors, it was transferred to a limited liability company controlled by members of the same group.
The Genrac Associates LLC, the company applying for the change of zone, has some ownership in common with the RAC Mill Rd Realty LLC, which holds title to the real estate, Walter said. RAC Mill Rd Realty LLC lists as its address with the N.Y secretary of state c/o J&L Properties, LLC, Suite A, 3505 Veterans Memorial Highway, Ronkonkoma. The purchaser of the property in 1986 was Racanelli Associates, whose principals were John Racanelli and Louis Colletti, according to town tax records.
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