Long Island Sports Park on Edwards Avenue gained preliminary site plan approval from the Riverhead Planning Board last night.
Owners of the 82-acre former Calverton Links golf course site plan to continue to hold various games and runs there. The recreational uses are all allowed in the Industrial C zoning use district, Riverhead attorney Charles Cuddy told the planning board during a Feb. 1 public hearing on the application.
In previous years, the operator of the park had filed multiple special event permit applications for various events and festivals at the site and in 2016 the town board directed him to seek site plan approval from the planning board.
“They have some golf play — frisbee golf, soccer golf and the mini golf course that exists there — paint ball and runs and various organizations come there for arts and crafts type of thing,” Cuddy said at the public hearing on the site plan application.
The operators also plan fairs, concerts, music festivals and catered events, according to its website and Facebook page.
The site itself has not been altered, Cuddy said. It has infrastructure on site adequate to handle all activities held there, he said, including water supply, sanitary flow and 193 parking spaces.
The planning board voted unanimously last night to grant the preliminary approval.
Hearing held on Calverton retail center
The planning board last night also held public hearings on the minor subdivision and site plan applications of New England Retail Properties for the 51-acre Calverton Industries site on Middle Country Road in Calverton, opposite Fresh Pond Avenue.
The applicant proposes a three-lot subdivision — two five-acre lots and a 41-acre lot that’s the site of the once-controversial Calverton Industries sand mine.
The applicant proposes developing one of the five-acre lots with 51,547-square-feet of new retail uses, including the national retailer Tractor Supply Co. The retail development would take place in four buildings in a “campus-style” layout. The largest building on that lot — a 19,097-square foot building with an attached 15,000-square-foot, fenced outdoor sales area — would be the site of the Tractor Supply Co. store.
Tractor Supply Company is “the largest operator of rural lifestyle retail stores in the United States,” according to the company website. Headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, the company operates more than 1,600 retail stores in 49 states. It sells a variety of agricultural, animal and outdoor products, including power equipment, lawn and garden items, hardware and animal products. Tractor Supply plans to open its first Long Island location later this year in Medford. The Calverton store would be its second on the island.
The three other buildings proposed — one 9,450-square-foot building and two 4,000-square-foot buildings — would house other retail uses. Retail tenants for the other buildings have not yet been procured, the applicant said during the public hearing.
Retail uses are allowed on the site because it is being developed under pre-master plan zoning, under a stipulation settling an old lawsuit between the town and the property owner, according to town officials.
The 37-foot-wide entrance to the site would line up with Fresh Pond Avenue on the south side of Middle Country Road.
The site retained its pre-master plan zoning — old Business CR and old Industrial B — under a stipulation of settlement of a lawsuit between Riverhead Town and Calverton Industries.
The stipulation ended a years-long lawsuit between the town and landowner Calverton Industries over the company’s right to mine the land. The settlement allowed Calverton Industries to continue to mine for five more years and also required the company to pay town a $1.25 million fine.
No public comment was made at the hearing, which was closed by the board. The board took no action on the applications last night.
New preschool gets preliminary approval
Bright and Early Discoveries, a new preschool on Northville Turnpike, also gained preliminary site plan approval from the planning board last night.
The preschool will have six rooms for an enrollment of about 50 children, with an outdoor playground and garden for children, owners Mark and Jennifer Lamaina told the board during a public hearing on their site plan application last night. There will be two second-story offices for the owners’ use. The preschool will have five to eight staff members.
Town planner Greg Bergman said the applicant proposes 13 parking spaces, which complies with town code.
Bright and Early Discoveries currently operates in a home on Union Avenue.
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