A privately-owned recreation park in Calverton that’s been in the works for a couple of decades and has gone through a number of incarnations is on a path to final approval.
Island Water Park started out as a plan for a water ski park featuring two artificial lake on a 42-acre site in Calverton. The original plan, which called for the excavation of some 80,000 cubic yards of sand to create two clay-lined oval lakes comprising about 19 acres, was approved by the State Department of Environmental Conservation in 2002. The permit allowed the developer to excavate to a depth of 46 feet above sea level, but excavators hit water at 48 feet.
In addition to its engineering complications, the project got hung up in a jurisdictional dispute over the Calverton Enterprise Park site between the Town of Riverhead and the State Pine Barrens Commission that landed in court.
The Island Water Park site is located at the EPCAL site and is the only property, besides the 490-acre industrial core, subdivided and sold by the town to a developer. Island Water Park paid the town $714,000 for the site in 2004.
In 2013, the town approved a site plan allowing non-motorized uses on the lakes, as well as two multi-purpose buildings — one a little over 49,000 square feet and the other 6,000 square feet.
Island Water Park owner Eric Scott came to the town last year with revised plans for the site that call for converting the large warehouse space into an indoor recreational facility. The lakes will no longer be used for traditional water skiing. Instead, visitors can be pulled on the water by tow ropes and they can also use canoes, kayaks and electric watercraft on the lakes.
The indoor recreational facility will include a surf pool, rock climbing, an obstacle course and other indoor entertainment, as well as a restaurant. There will be 360 parking stalls provided on the site.
Last year, the town board classified the action as a Type I action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and declared itself lead agency for the review.
At tomorrow’s town board meeting, the board is expected to adopt a resolution determining the proposal will not have a significant impact on the environment and does not require an environmental impact statement. The resolution will also schedule a public hearing on the site plan for the project. The town board, rather than the planning board, has jurisdiction over site plans for properties in the enterprise park.
Planning aide Greg Bergman told board members Thursday that a traffic impact study prepared by the applicant at the town’s request recommends dedicated turning lanes in both directions on Middle Country Road for traffic entering the site, but not a traffic signal. The applicant has applied for permits from the State Department of Transportation.
The applicant will need to relocate some 8,000 cubic yards of sand and soil from one portion of the site to another to fill a low-lying area and will also need to import a little over 5,000 cubic yards for the same purpose. The importation would be subject to monitoring by the town as well as the mandatory per-yard fee set forth in the town code, Bergman said.
“When we’re finished, it’s going to look like a park, like an actual state park,” Island Water Park representative Ken Meyers told the town board Thursday. “It’s not going to look like a Great Adventure or something like that. It’s going to be beautiful.”
Board members who have toured the site agreed and indicated their support for the project. They said they welcomed the employment and recreational opportunities the project will bring to the town.
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