Code change to allow resorts on L.I. Sound in Riverhead would protect farmland, town’s rural character, board members tell residents

The prospect of a resort being developed on Sound-front property in eastern Riverhead drew concerned residents from a nearby condominium community to the Riverhead Town Board meeting last week.

Allowing hotels and resorts on properties north of Sound Avenue is “a terrible idea,” Willow Ponds on the Sound Homeowners Association President Bill Wandling told the Town Board at its Dec. 19 meeting. Wandling led a group of more than a dozen homeowners from the condominium community to the afternoon meeting to ask about the potential development and the proposed zoning change that would allow it, and to register their objections.

As first reported by RiverheadLOCAL in July, Alfred Weissman Real Estate, a commercial development company in Westchester County, was promoting a “North Fork Resort – Luxury Resort and Spa” on its website. The site featured in an aerial photo on the website is acreage immediately east of the Willow Ponds community. 

MORE COVERAGE : Westchester developer interested in building spa and beach resort on L.I. Sound in Riverhead

“This extraordinary 105-acre site on the North Fork Wine trail offers the potential to build a truly unique campus beach resort experience,” the developer’s website says. “The property has a private beach with over 600 linear feet of coastline and a 70-acre organic farm, that will allow for the offering of an organic farm to table experience,” it says.

“AWRE [Alfred Weissman Real Estate] is looking to build a 5-star resort, taking advantage of the property’s natural beauty, proximity to NYC, the Hamptons and the North Fork wine trail. The property is located less than 90 miles from NYC and 13 miles from Westhampton Beach.”

The potential development came to light in the course of reporting on campaign contributions reported by candidates for local office this year. The campaign committee for supervisor candidate Tim Hubbard disclosed receiving a $1,000 contribution from the developer on April 19. 

In July, Community Development Director Dawn Thomas said town officials had met with representatives of Alfred Weissman Real Estate at various times over the last two years, most recently this spring. She said Hubbard, as well as council members Ken Rothwell and Bob Kern were familiar with the discussions. In an interview in July, Hubbard acknowledged attending a “pre-submission conference” — a meeting between town officials and a developer before the developer decides to formally submit an application to the town.

Alfred Weissman Real Estate has not made any public presentations on the plan to Riverhead officials.

“It’s just a concept proposal,” Thomas said in July. For it to proceed, it would require a zoning code change.The town was considering a zone change “for that whole area,” Thomas said, as a potential overhaul of the town’s transfer of development rights program, which aims to preserve farmland by transferring development rights from agricultural property to other areas, where the transferred credits are used to boost development densities and/or uses. 

“The idea is really to create agritourism experiences — to bring people to farms and have them stay,” Thomas told RiverheadLOCAL in July.

At its Nov. 30 work session, the Town Board discussed a draft of a zoning  code amendment that would allow development of an “agri-tourism inn and resort” in the RA-80 zoning district, which takes in most of the land north of Sound Avenue between Baiting Hollow and the Southold Town line. 

Under the draft code, the use would require a special permit of the Town Board and would be allowed only on sites of 100 acres or more. The development of the inn/resort use would be restricted to 30% of the site. 

The  inn/resort development would be the principal use, consisting of a building or buildings providing overnight accommodations for guests for a stay of no longer than two weeks. Permitted accessory uses within the building(s) would include restaurant, conference room(s), library; indoor personal amenity space/services such as salon or spa, gym and pool. “Limited outdoor amenities” for overnight guests “customarily associated with inns and resorts,”such as pool and tennis courts would also be allowed in the development site. 

Lot coverage on the inn/resort portion of a property would be limited to 15% of the buildable area — excluding wetlands, steep slopes and cross-easements for roads. With the purchase of farmland development credits, lot coverage could be increased to 25% of the buildable area.

A minimum of 70% of the property would be required to be “preserved in perpetuity” for agricultural production, including various field crops, horticultural specialties like nursery stock, ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers, and livestock. The code would allow, on the 70% of the property preserved for agriculture, up to 300,000 square feet of agriculture structures — single-story buildings no taller than 25 feet — which cannot be used for retail, processing or manufacturing. In addition a farm stand of up to 1,500 square feet would be “permitted for the sale of on-site agricultural grown produce or long island grown produce.”  

The draft code would also allow on the agricultural portion of the property tours, including education programs, workshops or demonstrations, pick-your-own activities, crop mazes for hayrides, and hiking or horseback riding and other passive recreational uses.

MORE COVERAGE: Luxury inn and resort uses would be allowed north of Sound Avenue under code change being considered in Riverhead

At its Nov. 30 work session, in a discussion led by Rothwell, board members embraced the proposed code revision as a way to protect farmland that still has development rights intact and to enhance the town’s tax base.    

The board did not mention the Alfred Weissman Real Estate plan or any other plan during the work session discussion. 

Deputy Town Attorney Annemarie Prudenti told the board at the Nov. 30 work session that there are approximately six areas in the RA-80 zoning district, which is already a designated “receiving area” for the transfer of development rights. 

Prudenti said she, Thomas and Planner Matt Charters began working on the code revision nearly two years ago. 

“We believe this legislation is absolutely consistent with the current comp plan,” Prudenti said, referring to the 2003 comprehensive plan that the town has a planning consulting firm currently working to update. The 2003 comprehensive plan focuses on agri-tourism as a means of preserving agriculture and agricultural lands.

There are still about 7,000 acres of farmland in Riverhead that are not protected, according to Thomas — and about 7,000 acres have been protected through county and town preservation programs, including acquisition of development rights.  Preserving the remaining farmland through acquisitions “would be financially untenable,” Thomas said, because of the cost involved.

Responding to Willow Ponds residents at last week’s town board meeting, board members stressed the need for boosting the transfer of development rights program and said the new commercial development envisioned by the draft code would have minimal impacts on the environment, as well as on the historic and scenic Sound Avenue corridor.

“If the concern is that you’re going to see a Marriott Marquis, five-story hotel there, you’re not,” Rothwell said. “That’s not going to happen. That’s not what this is about. So this is about, like, having an inn or spa development…This would have to be designed [to have] very low environmental impact, nothing noticeable from Sound Avenue,” he said. “We want to keep that historical vibe.”  

Rothwell said the proposed zoning would “give farmers an opportunity to…team up with colleges or other institutions where people could come on site and stay for a week in an inn, in a type of hotel setting, a conference room setting” that would provide “a learning culture similar to Cornell Cooperative Extension… where they can really immerse themselves on a particular property and stay there maybe for a week,” he said. 

“And anything which we do, we’re going to have a public hearing and we’re going to get insight, and we’re going to move very cautiously. We’re going to take everybody into consideration,” Rothwell said. If the board adopts the code change, he said, the town would still carefully review site plans for any proposed development.

“I’m on Sound Avenue all the time on my Harley going out east, then turn around and going back. I love the drive, and I have the same concerns you do,” Rothwell assured the residents.

Willow Ponds resident John Yovino said residents are very concerned about the traffic impacts of resorts on the two-lane road, where traffic is already “insane.”

“And there will be a traffic study done on that, sir,” Supervisor Yvette Aguiar replied. “On all projects there is a traffic study done. And it will measure that and the impacts to the environment,” she said. 

Resident Phyllis Gambrill asked the board to clarify the nature of the proposal is for the land next to the condominium community. “What is the situation with this resort or hotel or whatever it is? And is their use of the Sound part of their draw for people to come there? Is it going to be a beach resort? Is it going to be a hotel? What is it? I need some more understanding about what actually is going there,” she said.

“I think the one particular project that everybody’s referring to is more of an agricultural project. It’s more of a farming to table-type restaurant deal,” Rothwell said. “And  conference center… a spa. It’s not a beach resort. I don’t foresee cabanas and things down by the shore. 

Rothwell also minimized potential traffic impacts, saying that people would go to the resort and stay for a week.

“They will park and they will stay, as opposed to the secondary use of that property… What we typically see from many landowners along South Avenue is the bouncy bounces and the breweries and the festivals and everything else that bring a significant more amount of traffic,” Rothwell said. “And I think you will also see more traffic and you’ll see more detrimental to our schools should they choose to — because they have the right to develop that, whether it be housing or condominiums,” he said. He stressed that there would have to be “70% preservation” to go along with the resort use.

“You have made up your mind that this is going to happen,” Gabriel said. 

Rothwell denied that. “People are jumping ahead to a project. First, we’re just talking about zoning implications. TDRs, transfer of credits, protecting agricultural land. You start there, then you look at a project that comes before you that perhaps needs a special permit,” he said. “And then, then you address those issues, those concerns with that project. And you decide if that project is right for that location.”

Aguiar added: “We don’t have a site plan.” 

The plan for property next to WIllow Ponds is “in preliminary stages,” Rothwell said.

Any code change requires a public hearing, which has not yet been scheduled, Town Attorney Erik Howard said. 

“We understand your concerns,” Aguiar added. “It’s just that there’s nothing, there’s no project to be able to tear it apart. Right now let’s do the code and see if and when something comes in, see the site plan and then look at all these studies to make sure it’s not going to impact the environment,” she said.