Calverton industrial moratorium is extended for three months by split vote of Town Board

A halt on all industrial development activities in the hamlet of Calverton has been extended for three more months.

The Riverhead Town Board Tuesday approved the extension in a 3-2 split vote, with council members Ken Rothwell and Bob Kern dissenting.

Rothwell said he objected to recreation uses being caught up in the moratorium, bringing up a request that Kern made during the July 2 public hearing on the extension. 

“I want to hold off on warehouses,” Rothwell said, “but we had  put in a specific request, myself and Councilman Kern, I believe, to take out some of the limitations for some of the recreation projects up there and so forth, so without the amendments, I vote no.”

Kern voted no without comment.

Kern, during the public hearing on the three-month extension held by the Town Board July 2 asked Riverhead Town Senior Planner Matt Charters why recreation uses could not be exempted from the extended moratorium. “Recreation is not affected at all, so why is it captured under the moratorium,” Kern asked.

Charters explained on July 2 that should the board want to exempt recreation uses from the extended moratorium, the resolution would have to be re-noticed for a new public hearing. With the existing six-month moratorium about to expire on July 12, creating a longer gap before the extension takes effect would mean the town would have to process any application that is filed. If an application filed during that gap doesn’t comply with the revised Calverton industrial zoning that the comprehensive plan update is recommending, it would create problems, Charters cautioned.

“I don’t think that really does the board a service. I don’t think it does the applicant a service to essentially start over again. That’s why I’m not recommending any changes, recreation or any other use,” Charters said. 

Rothwell and Kern were apparently unconvinced.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard and council members Denise Merrifield and Joann Waski voted to approve the resolution for the extension. 

The original moratorium, for a period of six months, took effect Jan. 12 upon filing with the Department of State the local law establishing the moratorium that was approved at the Jan. 3 Town Board meeting by a 4-1 vote, with Kern voting no.

In response to a question by Greater Calverton Civic Association President Toqui Terchun, Town Attorney Erik Howard said the three-month extension would expire Oct. 12, three months from the July 12 effective date of the extension recited in the resolution approved yesterday. 

Terchun thanked the board for its action. The Greater Calverton Civic Association had pressed for a moratorium on industrial development in the hamlet in response to proposals for nearly 2.6 million square feet of warehouse space — not including the potential additional 8.24 million square feet of warehouse space proposed by Calverton Aviation & Technology for the Calverton Enterprise Park, which were aired at the Sept. 21, 2022 Riverhead Industrial Development Agency meeting. 

The civic’s plea was joined by several other civic and environmental groups. Residents packed the Town Hall meeting room several times in 2023 to demand the moratorium while work on the town’s comprehensive plan update continued. But a majority of the board did not support a moratorium until after the election of Merrifield and Waski, who took their seats in January. 

The draft comprehensive plan update proposes to revise industrial zoning in Calverton outside of the enterprise park to reduce development density and create opportunities for restoring some of the reduced density with the transfer of development rights from agricultural land in designated “sending areas” in the town.

The comp plan update is on track to be adopted this summer. Its recommendations must then be implemented by revisions to the Riverhead Town code that would be adopted after public hearings. The implementation process could take months. Charters said at the July 2 Town Board meeting that town staff had already begun working on the Calverton industrial zoning code, which board members said would be a priority for action.