Riverhead reviewing applications for new warehousing, manufacturing buildings at EPCAL

Riverhead Town planners are reviewing two site plan applications for new warehouse and manufacturing development for sites on Scott Avenue in the Calverton Enterprise Park.

TomCat Realty Holdings, an affiliate of Eastern Wholesale Fence, is proposing to construct a one-story 60,000-square-foot building for warehousing, manufacturing and office uses on a 14.5-acre lot at 901 Scott Avenue.

Hildreth Real Estate Advisors is proposing to construct a 70,455-square-foot warehouse with associated outdoor storage and loading docks on a 10-acre parcel at 1001 Scott Avenue.

Both properties are located in the enterprise park’s “industrial core” and in the Planned Industrial Park zoning district, which allows warehousing, manufacturing and offices as permitted uses. It also allows outdoor storage as permitted accessory uses.

The Riverhead Town Board, rather than the Planning Board, is vested with authority to review and approve site plans within the enterprise park urban renewal area.

At Thursday’s work session the board heard a presentation on the TomCat Realty Holdings proposal by planning department staff, which has completed its initial review of the application. At today’s meeting, the Town Board is expected to classify the application as a Type I action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and request lead agency status for purposes of coordinated review. Riverhead Town Code requires any application proposing a parking area providing more than 50 spaces to be classified as Type I.

The site plan shows a parking area of 77 paved and 36 “land-banked”parking spaces.

As designed, the site plan will require several variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals for: exceeding the maximum allowed parking area in the front yard; proposed setback for parking area that is 15 feet rather than 25 feet required by code; proposed light poles of 25 and 35 feet high, where the maximum allowed is 16 feet; and exterior lighting that will trespass onto adjoining property, which is prohibited by town code.

The TomCat Holdings application, filed Sept. 15, calls for the demolition of an existing 14,256-square-foot metal building.

A previously wooded area on the northwestern side of the parcel, in an area that was to remain natural according to the Calverton Camelot II subdivision approval, was illegally cleared between 2001 and 2010, according to a planning department staff report. Stone and asphalt pavement was also placed in this area, which the staff report says was apparently used for the storage of trailers and other vehicles, according to satellite imagery.

Starting in 2017, another portion of the area required to remain natural, was illegally cleared to create dirt trails and was being operated as an illegal motocross track, according to the staff report. Portions of the trails encroach onto the southeast corner of 1001 Scott Avenue as well as onto property owned by the Town of Riverhead. The report states that, according to town code enforcement records, the matter of the illegal motocross track was “disposed in Justice Court prior to the sale of the property to TomCat Realty Holdings.”

The Calverton Camelot subdivision requires a minimum of 305,000 square feet of land area to remain natural for the lot owned by TomCat Realty Holdings. The proposed site plan includes previously cleared areas within that 305,000 square feet that will “return to their natural state.” as “Area To Return To Natural State” on the submitted site plan. The outskirts of this cleared area have begun to revegetate, according to the staff report. The Town Board should consider whether to require a revelation plan from the applicant, according to the report.

Existing asphalt should be broken up or removed to allow natural revegetation of the illegally cleared area, planner Heather Trojanowski told the Town Board at Thursday’s work session.

Architect Robert Stromski said it is the applicant’s intention to remove the asphalt material and he is confident the area would go back to a natural state “fairly quickly.” The owner of the property has erected fencing to prevent the motocross trails from being used, he said.

Most of the proposed building will be manufacturing, Stromski said.

Eastern Wholesale Fence already has a location in the enterprise park at 301 Scott Avenue, Stromski said.

“They’re going to take the PVC material extruded at that plant, bring it here, and then fabricate it into fence sections,” Stromski said.

Some of the fabrication done by Eastern Wholesale Fence is currently being done in the company’s Medford location and will be done at the new facility in Calverton, company CEO Peter Williams Jr. said. That will result in less traffic because product won’t be shipped to Medford for fabrication and back.

He said the company has already spent about $45,000 to clean the property up. “It was a disaster,” he said.

“This is exactly what the PIP was set up for and this is a perfect use for it. You’ve been a great facility up there over the years and I completely favor what you’re looking to do,” Council Member Tim Hubbard said.

Hildreth Real Estate Advisors filed its application on Nov. 28 and it has not yet gone through the planning department’s full review process.

The property at 1001 Scott Avenue, also one of the lots created by the Calverton Camelot II subdivision, is vacant land that is “wooded but partially cleared,” according to the application, which was obtained by RiverheadLOCAL through a Freedom of Information Law request.

The proposed warehouse building would be 40 feet tall, 169 feet wide and 416.6 feet long, according to the applicant’s environmental assessment form.

Both 1001 Scott Avenue (Hildreth) and 901 Scott Avenue (TomCat) are located within the Riverhead Water District and the Calverton Sewer District.

Hildreth Real Estate Advisors is a real estate investment firm that has purchased numerous properties in downtown Riverhead over the past few years.