Here’s a rundown of actions taken at the Riverhead Town Board meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The board, by resolution:
- approved an amendment to the 2018 Community Development Block Grant Program to provide for the expenditure of $163,379 on downtown surveillance cameras;
- approved the amendment of the town code chapter governing special events to provide for a six-month amnesty period;
- approved the appointment of nine people to a newly reconstituted business advisory committee: Rob Carpenter, administrative director of Long Island Farm Bureau – 2 years; Bryan DeLuca, executive director of Long Island Aquarium – 2 years; Clete Galasso, owner of Lighthouse Marine Distributor- 2 years; Ike Israel, broker associate, Richmond Realty Corp. – 2 years; Robert Kern, member of Riverhead Industrial Development Agency and Riverhead Chamber of Commerce president – 2 years; Martin F. Sendlewski, architect, Martin F. Sendlewski, AIA – 1 year; Steve Shauger, general manager, Hyatt Place Long Island and president, BIDMA – 1 year; Stephanie Spooner, vice president, M & T Bank – 1 year; Tracy Stark James, Executive Director of Riverhead Industrial Development Agency – 1 year.
The board was split on the vote, with the Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith and Councilwoman Catherine Kent voting against the appointments, saying that they should first be advertised to the public.
- requested Suffolk County to demolish the dilapidated former Danowski fish market building on West Main Street, which the county took by tax deed in 2015 and to remediate the site, located on the Peconic River and restore it to open space;
- agreed to reduce by 50 percent the monthly license fee payable by Day Haven for use of part of the former day care center building at Stotzky Park, from $5,354 to $2,677 for the months of April through September 2019, due to “lower than anticipated enrollment” in the program;
- promoted Det. Dino Isgro to the position of police sergeant;
- promoted officer Patrick McDermott to detective third grade;
- hired a new bay constable, Travis Wooten;
- hired a temporary part-time bay constable, Dale Petruska;
- accepted the resignation of principal building inspector Brad Hammond, effective April 12.
Public hearings
The board adjourned until May 22 a public hearing on remediation of two blighted properties on West Main Street.
It closed without public comment a public hearing on the the expenditure of $3.13 million on water district facility improvements, including rehabilitating two aging plants and implementing a test well program;
It heard comments on the application of The Knolls at Fox Hill to amend a 1982 special permit allowing the development of 300 condominium units on a sound-front parcel in Baiting Hollow. The applicant is completing phase five of the development with the construction of the final 21 condominium units on the site and the planning board required the company to get the old special permit amended to reduce the total number of condominium units from 300 to 277 — the allowed total number of units under current county health department regulations.
Jane Kratz, an attorney representing the owner of the land developed with the golf course and clubhouse objected to the filing of a declaration of covenants and restrictions as to the development reduction, arguing that the planning board has no authority to require it and the lack of an available metes and bounds description of the property in question before the hearing made it impossible to determine what was actually going to happen at the site.
While the golf course land is subject to a conservation easement — Knolls attorney Christopher Kent said a golf course was “considered open space back then” — Soundview Associates acquired 11 acres from a third party that still have development rights intact.
“There is no pending application at this point and I want that to be crystal clear — whatever this board decides does not affect the rest of the property where the golf operation exists,” Kratz said.
Finally, the board held a public hearing on Councilwoman Jodi Giglio’s proposal to amend the town code to require managers of mobile home parks to obtain and keep on file in their offices copies of all town rental permits in effect for dwelling units within their parks.
After comments from representatives of the Mobile and Manufactured Homeowners Association of Suffolk, who requested more time to review the proposal and suggest modifications, the board agreed to hold the meeting record open for written comments until April 18.
“The intent of the amendments are good but we feel more work has to be done,” said MMHOA board member Diana Ruvolo.
Giglio advocated acting on the code amendments as written and revising them at a later date because the process of changing them now would mean it will be another two or three months before any change is on the books, she said.
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