Jamesport residents urged the Town Board Tuesday to reject the Dimon Estate’s special permit application to expand its operations with a large dining room for hosting weddings and other catering events.
During a public hearing on the application, residents argued that the expansion would disrupt their quality of life and would violate the spirit of the Agricultural Protection Zone, the zoning district where the Dimon Estate and surrounding properties are located.
“This is not an inconsequential addition, and it will turn an already nonconforming use into a much larger nonconforming use,” said Manor Lane resident Bonnie Schmidt. “The owners are capitalizing at the expense of the neighbor’s quality of life, and diminishing the value of all neighboring properties.”
Dimon Estate owner Kar-McVeigh is looking to build a 6,045-square-foot dining/catering room addition to its existing restaurant on Manor Lane in Jamesport, with a covered patio and patio areas, 53 proposed parking stalls and 21 proposed land-banked parking stalls.
The town has been in and out of court with the property owner for years over use of the restaurant site for catering events and outdoor events that have drawn persistent noise complaints from residents. A pair of lawsuits were temporarily halted in August in order to allow the town and Kar-McVeigh to explore a settlement agreement. Kar-McVeigh filed a special permit application and the Town Board scheduled this week’s hearing without public discussion of the proposal or any possible settlement.
Town Board members did not give the restaurant’s proposal a warm reception, questioning the Kar-McVeigh team on the traffic and sound studies that consultants prepared for the hearing, and whether the expansion of the facility was right for the area.
The Dimon Estate, formerly known as the Jamesport Manor Inn, is a pre-existing restaurant use that does not conform to the site’s current APZ zoning.
Pre-existing, nonconforming uses can be expanded by special permit of the Town Board. The board can deny the special permit for several reasons, including a finding that the specially permitted use impairs the use or development of neighboring properties.
The Zoning Board of Appeals in 2004 held “it is reasonable to conclude that catering is a type of restaurant use that can be a principal or accessory use and unless specifically excluded, is a permitted use where a restaurant use is permitted.” The 2004 ZBA decision was upheld by a court in 2007, after a legal challenge by residents.
Former Riverhead Planning Director Richard Hanley in 2008 and 2009 rejected site plan applications from Kar-McVeigh seeking to use a temporary tent on the Manor Lane property (2008) and to build a barn on the site (2009) for catered events. Hanley said the applicant was seeking to expand a pre-existing nonconforming use, so the Planning Board could not entertain its site plan application. An expansion of a pre-existing, nonconforming use requires a special permit of the Town Board, Hanley wrote.
After the ZBA denied Kar-McVeigh’s appeal in 2009, the applicant went to court. In 2013, a State Supreme Court judge ordered the ZBA to re-hear the appeal.
The ZBA held a new hearing on Kar-McVeigh’s appeal last March and last April denied the appeal again, upholding Hanley’s 2008 and 2009 decisions rejecting Kar-McVeigh’s site plan applications.
MORE COVERAGE: ZBA again denies Jamesport restaurant’s bid to build a barn to accommodate catered events
Kar-McVeigh sued to overturn the ZBA’s latest decision. A lawsuit brought by the town alleging the restaurant owner was in violation of the town’s noise ordinance was already pending. In August, both lawsuits were stayed after the parties entered a stipulation stating they would explore settlement of the actions.
Council Member Ken Rothwell said at Tuesday’s hearing the proposed expansion did not make sense to him. “I just don’t see how we’re getting from a pre-existing, nonconforming small restaurant to something that is twice the size and a catering hall,” he said. “I think it’s two very different businesses.”
“It appears to me that this is not an expansion, I think it’s a change of use,” Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said.
Council Member Tim Hubbard said that “catering and wedding venues are, in our minds, two separate entities.”
Charles Cuddy, attorney for Kar-McVeigh, said that the ZBA opinions support using the site as a catering hall.
Neighboring residents, who have long criticized the Dimon Estate’s use as a catering facility and have complained about the noise and other disruptions coming from weddings and other events at the site, urged the Town Board to deny the permit.
John Sipala, who owns the land surrounding the Dimon Estate property, said the proposed expansion does not fit within the area. Quoting from the town code statute governing special permits, he said the use does not fit into the zoning district and will bring noise to an area he called the “quietest place on the North Fork.”
Schmidt called Matt Kar of Kar-McVeigh, “the worst neighbor he could be, showing no regard for complaints from neighbors made directly to him and choosing to ignore any requests or direction made from law enforcement and code enforcement.”
Last year, the Town Board passed an amendment to the town’s noise ordinance to make it easier to crack down on “noise pollution” generated by “any sound reproductive device,” and raise fines for violations of the law. The majority of residents who spoke in favor of the amendment were residents who live near Dimon Estate.
“He has for several years substantially impaired the reasonable use, comfort and enjoyment of our home, our property and those of our other nearby neighbors,” Schmidt added.
Manor Lane resident Frank Blangiardo told the Town Board that granting the special permit “would be nothing more than a scar on the Agricultural Protection Zone.”
“They want to just take advantage of all our preservation efforts and all our vistas, and then on 3.1 acres, run this big catering hall,” Blangiardo said. He said that the building would look like a “cruise ship.”
Robert Skinner, a resident of Eileen Circle, said there are reasonable expectations to living in the APZ — and wedding receptions are not among them.
“The more and more and more requested in this application does not support what should be the spirit of an APZ,” Skinner said. “It is in direct competition with what farming is.”
Aguiar expressed concerns that granting the special permit could establish a bad precedent for other restaurants to expand.
Cuddy said there are similar structures on other properties within the Agricultural Protection Zone that have buildings similar to the expansion proposed at the Dimon Estate, including RGNY on Sound Avenue.
In addition to speakers, there were seven letters sent in opposition to Dimon Estate’s special permit application, Town Clerk Diane Wilhelm said.
Before the board heard from residents, the applicant’s representatives presented site plans as well as noise and sound studies to support the proposed expansion.
The traffic impact study, created by Schneider Engineering of Miller Place, concludes there will be “no adverse impact of the proposed expansion on traffic operating conditions.” The turning movement data used for the study was collected in March.
The study uses New York State Department of Transportation data to determine that the peak season for traffic on Main Road to be in July and August. Council Member Ken Rothwell disagreed.
“I would think about October on our East End of Long Island is the worst time of traffic out here and I would have liked to have seen a study done in October,” Rothwell said. “That’s when our Sound Avenue, our roads heading east tend to shut down.”
Rothwell said he would have liked to see a traffic impact study done when the Dimon Estate was hosting weddings at the site. “That would be interesting to have those numbers as well,” he said.
SoundSense of Wainscott was retained for the acoustic analysis for the project, Cuddy said. Sean Harkin of SoundSense said that the State Environmental Quality Review Act analysis of the project has not yet been completed and will determine noise impacts. SoundSense will work with the project’s contractors to implement a design that will reduce noise levels heard by neighbors, he said.
“What we’re trying to do, and we believe we can do, is reduce the sound to a very, very minimum,” Cuddy said.
Harkin said he has the data on the outdoor weddings at the Dimon Estate in fall 2021 and created a noise mitigation plan. The plan ended up not being implemented due to wedding cancellations at the site last year, he said. Kar-McVeigh canceled weddings at the site last year due to pending litigation with the town.
Hubbard asked Harkin if he is factoring in wind and the lack of a natural buffer for sound at the location. Harkin said it is not an industry standard to account for wind or any vegetation, unless there is a significant amount of dense foliage.
Council Member Bob Kern asked Harkin if the building can be built like a performance space, so no sound can escape. Harken said it is not realistic to do that with certain building code requirements, but that the project is going to look at using other measures to mitigate the output of sound.
Rothwell said he wants to see emergency service organizations weigh in on the application. Rothwell, a volunteer firefighter, said the site plan does not provide adequate space for emergency vehicles.
Aguiar adjourned the hearing until June 21. The Riverhead Planning Department requested the adjournment so the applicant could submit significant information missing from the application, Riverhead Planner Matt Charters said. If a special permit is granted by the board, Kar-McVeigh would still require site plan approval from the Planning Board.
Correction: The original version of this article stated that Kar-McVeigh requested the hearing be adjourned to a future date. The Riverhead Planning Department made that recommendation.
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