Riverhead Centre owner seeks to convert retail space to restaurant use

The owner of the Riverhead Centre shopping plaza would like to add another restaurant — or two.

Southold attorney Patricia Moore came before the town board at its work session this morning to discuss a proposal to convert an existing retail storefront to a restaurant use. The approximately 5,000-square-foot storefront, now vacant, is in the block of stores where Michael’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buy are located; it is the former site of a Lane Bryant clothing store.

A restaurant use is a pre-existing, nonconforming use on the 50-acre site, which was developed prior to the 2004 master plan zoning adoption that changed the site’s zoning to Destination Retail Center. Restaurants are not permitted uses in the Destination Retail Center zone.

The nearly 400,000-square-foot shopping plaza, located on the northeast corner of Route 58 and Mill Road, already has four restaurant uses: TGI Friday’s, Country Rotisserie, Strathmore Bagels and a currently vacant restaurant pad, formerly Joe’s Crab Shack, where an IHOP restaurant is planned.

The expansion of a pre-existing, nonconforming use requires a special permit from the town board.

The proposed restaurant space can accommodate 120 to 160 seats, according to an evaluation by the town planning department.

Moore sought permission for the vacant space to be developed with either one or two restaurants, in order to provide the plaza owner with flexibility in marketing the space, she said. A majority of board members balked at that idea, expressing concern that two smaller spaces would attract fast-food restaurants.

“We have so many fast food restaurants already,” Councilwoman Catherine Kent said.

Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith said she is “not crazy about” dividing the space in two and Deputy Supervisor Tim Hubbard said he would prefer one restaurant there.

Councilman James Wooten said he likes the idea of fast food restaurants there, because they would serve shoppers as well as employees who work in the stores there.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglip expressed concern about “getting pushback from restaurants downtown.” She noted that the prohibition of restaurants in the Destination Retail zoning district came from a desire to enhance downtown commerce.

“The original theory of the master plan was if you don’t have restaurants on 58 it will be good for downtown, but I don’t think it’s worked out that way,” Jens-Smith said.

“People who work in those stores are not going downtown to eat during their half-hour linch break,” Wooten said.

The planning department recommended that a cross-access easement be required connecting Riverhead Centre with the property to the east, where another retail plaza proposal is pending. That would allow traffic to exit from Riverhead Centre onto Osborn Avenue, where the Garsten retail center will have an entrance and exit. It would divert local traffic from Route 58, the planners said.

Planners also recommended that the center owner be required to bring its property into compliance with the town’s “dark skies” ordinance. The center was supposed to have changed its lighting to comply with the code by Dec. 31, 2017. The applicant has agreed to this, building and planning administrator Jefferson Murphree said.

“We’re happy with the cross easement,” Jens-Smith said. “But complying with the code on the lighting is not optional, it’s an obligation the owner has whether or not there’s a special permit,” she said.

The town board will schedule a public hearing on the special permit application at an upcoming meeting.