A crowd turned out to the Riverhead Planning Board meeting last night to object to Riverhead Ciderhouse’s site plan amendment application.
The amended approval is sought to legalize several changes already made at the cidery that deviate from the site plan approved by the planning board last year: a reconfigured “grab and go” snack bar and the addition of two pizza ovens inside; the addition of a 3,186-square-foot outdoor patio area, adjacent masonry block wall and 56 parking spaces, as well as landscaping changes and two wall-mounted speakers for outdoor music.
Riverhead Ciderhouse attorney Bryan Lewis, who at a planning board work session in July argued against the need for a public hearing on the changes, characterizing them as “not material,” told the board last night the applicant did not realize he needed site plan approval to add the patio. When he learned an amended site plan approval was needed, owner John King had the patio removed and planted the area with grass, Lewis said.
The rest of the changes are “not material,” Lewis said last night, reiterating the position he took during the planning board’s work session. He said he thought the planning board had agreed during the July meeting that they would not be subject to a public hearing. Planning board chairman Stan Carey said that was also his recollection, but he acknowledged that the other changes were included in the hearing notice.
In all, eight people stood to voice opposition to the site plan amendment and their remarks were met with applause from the audience.
Larry Simms of South Jamesport led with a long litany of objections. He argued that Riverhead Ciderhouse has breached every covenant imposed by the planning board with its site plan approval last year. The covenants are straightforward, he said, listing them: no special events; no outdoor music; no full-service restaurant or catering; no expansion of the tasting room or public access areas; all activities close by 9 p.m.
“It’s impossible to understand why this board would impose a long list of covenants, responding to legitimate concerns expressed by the community, only to erase them a year later,” Simms said.
“There’s an old saw that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” Simms said. “That’s gospel for anyone doing business in this town. It’s become Riverhead’s reputation and it’s as embarassing as it is damaging to our quality of life. You will cement that reputation by giving this bully of an applicant exacty what he wants at the town’s expense,” he said. “I’m asking you instead to please do your best to protect the town’s long-term interest and deny this application.”
Simms argued that the cidery conducts “serious food service” without a health department permit. He urged the board to rely on the report of the town’s principal building inspector, Brad Hammond, who told board members in July that the Suffolk County health department and state agriculture and markets inspectors had determined that Riverhead Ciderhouse required a food control permit from the health department for the food preparation being done on site. The applicant maintains that no permit is required because the cidery is only serving ready-made foods, some of which require reheating.
“I think it would be a grave mistake for you to give equal weight to the testimony of town employees whose only job is to safeguard the town’s interests and enforce its rules and the applicant and attorneys whose only goal is to safeguard their own profits,” Simms said.
He presented the board with photos showing a food cart, tables at which people were seated, apparently eating food and photos of the on-site menu board offering salads, soups and other items.
The applicant installed new pizza ovens and reconfigured the “grab and go snack bar area” to nearly double its size after it obtained site plan approval, without obtaining permits, fire marshal inspections or a site plan amendment, according to town records.
Simms also argued that Riverhead Ciderhouse is also doing catering in violation of its site plan covenants. He showed a photo of what he said was a large dining room, where a sign was hung that read “closed for private event.” The approved site plan shows that space as two offices, side by side, Simms said. “They do not exist. They built a dining room. Are people attending private events held in this space being served just what’s in the snack bar?” he asked.
“Where is your indignation?” Simms demanded. “This owner ignored a site plan you had just approved…He comes in here and says he would like to add what he has already built and nobody’s indignant about that?”
Simms railed about other changes made to the site contrary to the approved plan, including signs put up without permits, the addition of 59 parking spaces, some newly paved, and lighting that did not meet the specifications of the approval.
“Why is that okay?” he asked.
Baywood drive resident Dan Maurer complained of noise coming from the site, including loud music and crowd noise, and traffic impacts.
Mike Foley of Reeves Park urged the board to protect the Sound Avenue historic corridor, designated by the state in 1974.
“I and thousands of others have fought to stop commercial development on Sound Avenue,” he said. “To allow any outdoor seating and music clearly violates the master plan and the historic corridor designation. Deny this application,” he told them.
Former councilman George Bartunek of Baiting Hollow criticized the board for considering “an expansion of a pre-existing nonconforming use.”
“This is not something you’d expect to exist on Sound Avenue,” Bartunek said. “How this came about was in 2012 somebody using the word ‘processing’ as an allowed use,” he said.
Grapes and Greens, owned by John King of J.Kings Food Service in Holtsville, purchased the 7.3-acre site from Blackman Plumbing, which in 2000 obtained a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals to use the former 108,000-square-foot potato chip factory building as a warehouse. King’s original plan was to use the for storing and processing agricultural products.
The town building department in 2012 issued Grapes and Green a use permit for storing and processing agricultural products. Controversy ensued over whether the town code should be interpreted to include processing, packaging and storage of produce under “agricultural production for commercial use,” which is an allowed use in the Agricultural Protection Zone where the site is located.
The Zoning Board of Appeals, after a lengthy hearing, instead determined that the processing use was accessory to the principal warehouse and sustained the building department use permit.
In 2015 the building department issued a letter stating that hard cider tasting and retail is accessory to food processing. That December, despite community objections, the planning board granted preliminary site plan approval to Riverhead Ciderhouse, subject to a number of conditions, some of which the property owner now seeks to reverse. It granted final site plan approval in April 2016 and Riverhead Ciderhouse thereafter filed a declaration of covenants memorializing the site plan approval conditions.
Angela DeVito of South Jamesport asked whether the board has conducted a sound study for the site and said one should be done. “The applicant has represented that the use does nto violate the town’s noise ordinance,” she said. “The board should confirm that with a study done by qualified experts,” DeVito said.
“If there’s live music inside and that music is piped outside via these speakers is that live music outside?” she asked.
Mark Terry of Baiting Hollow said the board should also require a traffic study for the use. The original traffic study was a “line of sight study,” he said. With the addition of 56 more cars, there will be many more vehicle trips, he said. “This is a problem area already. Osborn Avenue is a very heavily traveled road.”
Frederick Terry of Baiting Hollow, former owner of the Lobster Roll Northside on Sound Avenue there, followed his son to the podium.
“I am incredulous that we now have the largest bar on Sound Avenue in the Town of Riverhead,” the senior Terry said. “I’m incredulous how this surreptitious type of activity has taken place in what was supposed to be a rural corridor,” he said. “There were supposed to be small hamlet centers — not farm stands that serve beer, wine and alcohol, with food trucks and ice cream stores. There’s no limit to what you can do under the APZ [Agricultural Protection Zone]. It’s up to this board to put a stop to it,” Terry said.
“I would implore you to step back and look at the big picture, to protect the last vestige of a rural corridor in the Town of Riverhead.”
The applicant offered no further testimony in response to the statements made by residents and the board closed the public hearing.
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