Planning board nixes propane facility plan

A controversial proposal for a propane storage and distribution facility on Kroemer Avenue failed to gain site plan approval from the Riverhead Planning Board Thursday night.

The resolution approving the site plan failed 2-3.

Architect Martin Sendlewski, who represents the applicant, an LLC owned by Frank Fisher of Flanders, was livid about the denial.

After midnight last night, Sendlewski, still fuming, submitted his resignation from the town’s business advisory committee.

“I am in a current situation where I feel I cannot effectively support the interests of my clients in a town that is so anti-business as the Town of Riverhead…” Sendlewski wrote, “…when approached by potential clients who are interested in investing in what I always thought was my wonderful home town, I will tell them to look elsewhere.”

Sendlewski reiterated those sentiments in a phone interview this morning.

“I can’t stay on that committee. Riverhead is still known as the place where projects go to die,” he said. “You invest in Riverhead, you lose money. You do everything right and you still get a ‘no.’ This is the land of no,” he said.

“It’s so frustrating. You do everything you’re required to do and then you have a planning board chair who is against the application, and they deny it,” Sendlewski said.

The applicant is seeking to develop the four-acre site at 48 Kroemer Avenue with eight 30,000-gallon propane tanks — scaled back from its original plan for nine such tanks — and a 38,472-square-foot, two-story commercial building for industrial and office uses.

The propane storage and distribution use requires a special permit from the town board, which was approved on Sept. 15.

The Riverhead Fire District has expressed opposition to the site plan as configured for fire safety reasons. Among them are the orientation of the storage tanks in relation to the site entrance fire trucks would use when responding to an emergency, as well as the close proximity to a large existing propane storage and distribution facility operated by Paraco Gas.

Last night Sendlewski argued that the planning board should not give special consideration to the fire district’s opinion, because the commissioners who run the district are not required to have any fire safety training and the board of fire commissioners is not “an involved agency.”

That led to a somewhat heated back-and-forth between the architect and planning board Chairman Stan Carey.

Carey has voiced a number of concerns about the site plan, including the same issues raised by the fire commissioners. He also cited the storage tank’s proximity to the industrial/office building proposed to be constructed on the site, less than 100 feet from some of the storage tanks. Carey said that was not addressed in the applicant’s fire and safety analysis.

“It doesn’t have to, sir. It meets the code,” Sendlewski shot back.

According to industry experts who spoke on behalf of the applicant during a public hearing last month, a minimum distance of 400 feet is considered safe for stores and other buildings in the event of a propane release.

Based on the size of the four-inch piping proposed at the facility a “dispersion cloud won’t go any further in its flammability to 407 feet,” said Gary Nouse, director of operations for Hiltz Propane Systems in Pennsylvania, which will design and build the Kroemer Avenue facility. “I understand there’s some stores and buildings in the area, but everything is greater than the 407 feet,” he said.

Ted Lemoff, an engineering consultant to the applicant, who worked for 25 years with the National Fire Protection Association, which publishes national standards, including the standard for the construction of propane facilities — a document Lemoff personally worked to develop — told the planning board last month the applicant’s fire and safety analysis “covered every single requirement in the code.” He said the proposal is “a very reasonable plan.”

Planning Board member George Nunnaro, who worked for 48 years in the compressed gas industry, expressed concerns about the site’s proximity to the Paraco facility, which is within the 400-foot distance cited by the applicant’s representative as vulnerable to the dispersion of flammable gas. He also questioned how the rail spur on the property would be used in the future.

In the end, Carey, Nunnaro and member Dick O’Dea voted no on the site plan resolution Thursday night. Members Ed Densieski and Joe Baier voted yes.

This morning, Sendlewski said he intended to ask for a meeting with town and fire district officials — two members each from the town board, planning board and fire district board, he said, as well as the Riverhead fire marshal, the town planning director and the chief of the Riverhead Fire Department. The hope, Sendlewski said, would be to reach an agreement that would provide for a re-vote to approve the application.

This afternoon, Sendlewski wrote to the Riverhead Board of Fire Commissioners to say he plans to attend their next meeting with his client and their experts to present all the information and documents submitted to the town.

“Our hope is that when this information is presented to and reviewed with your board, it will be clear to you that the concerns have been addressed and your objection to the town can be rescinded,” Sendlewski wrote, expressing to the commissioners he hopes the resolution can be submitted for a re-vote and approved.