County legislators yesterday unanimously approved two major land preservation measures in the Town of Riverhead.
The legislature approved the purchase of development rights on 49.6 acres of active farmland owned by Schmitt family on Sound Avenue for $2.728 million ($55,000 per acre.) Funding for the development rights purchase comes from the county’s Drinking Water Protection Program, with quarter-percent sales tax revenues.
Legislators also approved the purchase of 20 acres of land adjacent to county parkland north of Sound Avenue for $1.7 million. The property, former farmland owned by Lynn Wells, Ruth Wells, Dale Wells and June Harrison is adjacent to the 307-acre North Fork Preserve site, which the county bought for $17.9 million in 2011, including a $492,000 contribution by the Town of Riverhead.
Riverhead Town Board members Catherine Kent and Frank Beyrodt both joined yesterday’s county legislature meeting via the Zoom video conference platform to urge support for the acquisitions.
Both council members stressed the importance of preserving working farms and open space in Riverhead, which Kent called “the agricultural apex of Long Island” an identity Riverhead is very proud of, she said.
“It’s vital to the entire region that farming families such as the Schmitts be able to continue farming and passing their farms down from generation to generation,” Kent said.
“The Wells parcel is also a key piece of land to preserve as it is surrounded by hundreds of acres of open space, parkland and preserved farmland,” she said.
Beyrodt, a past president of the Long Island Farm Bureau — his family owns DeLea Sod Farms — called the preservation of both parcels “key.”
“I cannot overstate the importance of this program going forward by preserving working farms and open space in perpetuity, thereby ensuring a vibrant economy, an economic driver and beautiful, bucolic open vistas in Suffolk County,” Beyrodt said.
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