Most parcels on town’s list of sites eligible for cannabis uses under town code are already fully developed, analysis shows

Potential locations for retail marijuana shops and cafes in Riverhead Town are even fewer than the three dozen sites on a list prepared by a town engineering aide earlier this month, a RiverheadLOCAL analysis shows.

The 36 parcels on the list meet the town code’s minimum siting requirements regarding zoning districts and minimum distances from certain uses — schools, parks and playgrounds, houses of worship, residences, etc.

But an examination of the actual current uses of the parcels on the list indicates most are very unlikely future locations for marijuana retail shops or cafes.

Many properties on the list are fully developed commercial sites: the Marriott and Residence Inn properties; the Tanger Outlets properties; Gateway Plaza (Walmart); Adchem; Applebees and adjoining retail stores; Costco Wholesale (though not the adjoining shopping plaza where Home Goods et al are located); the 7-Eleven gas station near Tanger; the site of a trucking company on Route 58 near Tanger; sites on Kroemer Avenue occupied by a lumber company and an auto wrecker/junkyard; the Hotel Indigo; the Fairview apartment complex on West Main Street; and the Snowflake/Funchos site on West Main Street.

Three of the properties are LILCO rights of way, a fourth owned by LILCO and is developed as a transmission facility.

Only six of the parcels are currently not in use. Five are vacant land: a one-acre site on Middle Country Road in Calverton; a four-acre site on West Main Street, just east of Hotel Indigo; a four-acre site on Route 58 slated for new outlet stores; a .19-acre site on Old Country Road near the Marriott hotel; and a four-acre site on Kroemer Avenue. The sixth site is at the corner of Kroemer Avenue and Old Country Road, where a recently built commercial building sits empty.

Any location within 1,000 feet of a residential use is off-limits under the current town code, regardless of the zoning of the land. This would prevent any of 10 other properties on the list from being developed with marijuana uses. While they are all in the Peconic River Community zoning district, where the use is allowed by the code, they are all currently improved with residential uses and all adjoin other residential uses. Since these parcels are adjoining parcels on West Main Street, establishing a marijuana on any of these parcels would require eliminating residential uses on one or more adjoining parcels.

The code’s 1,000-foot minimum distance from residential uses would also make a portion of Tanger II ineligible.

In addition to the 1,000-foot minimum distance from any residential use, the marijuana code contains minimum distance requirements for a variety of other uses: 1,000 feet from a school, library or day care facility; 500 feet from any town beach, playground or community center, and children’s amusement; 500 feet from any place of worship; and 2,500 feet from any other retail marijuana shop or cafe. The code also bans the use within a mixed-use (i.e. commercial-residential) development project.

Members of the Riverhead Business Advisory Committee say the town’s code is too restrictive.

“When you start talking about three football fields plus between any residence and a whole bunch of different things, you basically eliminate any possibility of setting up a dispensary anywhere that’s reasonable,” Business Advisory Committee member Lee Mendelson said at the committee’s April 11 meeting.

MORE COVERAGE: Is Riverhead’s marijuana zoning too restrictive? Town’s Business Advisory Committee thinks so.

The committee was discussing the list prepared by an engineering department employee. The list identified the parcels only by tax map number and zoning district. The actual current uses and occupancies of the properties was determined by cross-referencing the tax map numbers on the list with Suffolk County property and tax records.

Council Member Ken Rothwell, who led the ad-hoc cannabis committee that devised the recommendations for the new town code, said last night he will reconvene the cannabis committee to discuss possibly revising the code.

Last night, Rothwell examined a list prepared by RiverheadLOCAL that indicates the owners, uses and street addresses of the parcels on the town’s list. Looking at the actual current uses of the 36 properties on the town’s list shed new light on the matter, he said.

Rothwell said he thought 36 parcels was a reasonable number, but if most of those are very unlikely sites, then the code’s rules seem too restrictive.

“If too few parcels in the Town of Riverhead can be developed with cannabis uses, we need to revise the code,” he said. “That was not the intention. Our goal was to make it fair, not too restrictive,” Rothwell said.

The councilman said the cannabis committee was a diverse group that worked hard to come up with a code that would be fair to everyone concerned, a compromise that satisfied people “on both sides of the issue.”