Update 11:50 a.m.: The Riverhead Town Board has canceled the public hearing on the Agritourism Inn and Resort zoning code “in response to the unusually high volume of opposition and commentary received” on the topic by Town Board members, Supervisor Tim Hubbard said this morning. Read our coverage of the announcement here.
Original article:
The Greater Jamesport Civic Association is organizing against the Agri-tourism Inn and Resort zoning proposed for land north of Sound Avenue in Riverhead Town.
The civic group launched a petition on Change.org Monday titled “Save Sound Avenue.” The organization is urging residents and visitors to sign the petition “to send a message to Riverhead’s elected officials that residents do not want commercial hotel and resort development on Sound Avenue.”
“We want to preserve our farms, scenic vistas and this historic area,” the petition statement of purpose says.
The group is urging residents to attend the upcoming Town Board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 6 p.m., when a public hearing is scheduled to take place on the proposed zoning. Interested persons can also speak during the meeting via Zoom. (Zoom access information will be published on the town’s website in advance of the meeting.) The civic is also asking residents to write to town officials at the email addresses provided on the petition page. A sample letter to the Town Board is offered by the organization on its website.
The proposed zoning code would allow the construction of resort hotels in the RA-80 zoning district, which takes in most of the land north of Sound Avenue from Baiting Hollow to the Southold Town line.
The resort hotel uses would be allowed only on tracts of land (one or more parcels) of 100 acres of land or more; at least 70% of that land would have to be preserved for agricultural uses, while the other acreage could be built as a resort with a spa, restaurant, conference rooms and other amenities. The proposed code would allow up to 300,000 square feet of structures on the agricultural land, which could include greenhouses, barns and agricultural worker housing. The code includes a 35-foot height limit for all buildings, agricultural and non-agricultural.
The RA-80 zoning district is a residential zoning district that allows development yield of one dwelling unit per 80,000 square feet, or roughly two acres.
MORE COVERAGE: Luxury inn and resort uses would be allowed north of Sound Avenue under code change being considered in Riverhead
Town officials have touted the proposal as a farmland preservation tool, since the RA-80 zoning district includes lands presently in agricultural use.
“If somebody reads the entire legislation, they will see that it’s good for the community,” Council Member Ken Rothwell, a proponent of the zoning change, said in an interview last month. “It is a tool that is going to protect the integrity, it’s going to protect the agricultural preservation, the historic corridor, the aesthetic, the views and how the appearance is right now. I want people 50 years from now — 100 years from now — to drive down Sound Avenue and be like, ‘wow, look, this is still a farming community.’ That’s what this legislation is.”
MORE COVERAGE: Agri-tourism resort code back in play
Some Riverhead residents have disagreed with that premise and voiced opposition to the late inclusion of the use in the final draft of the comprehensive plan update during a public hearing on the draft plan in May. The Group for the East End added its opposition at the hearing and asked that the Town Board remove the use from the plan’s recommendations for the RA-80 zoning district.
“Without having the specifics of the impacts of what this could potentially do in the area, we respectfully request that it be removed from the comprehensive plan as suggested and as a zoning amendment,” Jennifer Hartnagel of the Group for the East End said. “In our view, the core value of farmland preservation is agricultural production, not resort complexes offering farm activities.”
MORE COVERAGE: Residents concerned about Riverhead’s future speak out at comp plan hearing Monday night
Southold Town officials have also expressed opposition to the proposed zoning in written correspondence and at a meeting initiated by Southold officials last month in Southold Town Hall. Four of the five Riverhead Town Board members, including the supervisor attended the joint meeting in Southold.
Rothwell defended the proposal during the meeting. He told Southold officials that all buildings will have low profiles, with a 35-foot maximum height. The 200-foot setback from Sound Avenue will ensure that any new construction will not mar the scenic vistas of the corridor, he maintained. And the hotels, which must be set back at least 500 feet from the L.I. Sound bluffs will not be visible from the beach, Rothwell said. He said the hotels will add to the town’s tax base and, unlike residential development, will not put kids in the Riverhead Central School District’s already-overcrowded schools.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead and Southold town boards hold joint work session to discuss Sound-front resorts
Riverhead Town officials began discussing a possible resort hotel on a 105-acre tract of vacant land north of Sound Avenue in Riverhead in October 2022, when Rothwell and then-Councilmember Tim Hubbard met with representatives of Alfred Weissman Real Estate at Town Hall, according to email correspondence obtained by RiverheadLOCAL through the Freedom of Information Law.
MORE COVERAGE: Read the emails and other records regarding the resort code provided by Riverhead Town in response to a Freedom of Information request
The emails indicate ongoing correspondence between town officials and the developer’s representatives beginning in the fall of 2022, with the developer’s attorney and planning consultants working to develop a zoning code that would allow a hotel resort at the 3994 Sound Avenue site.
After calls and emails from January to early April 2023, the developer offered to fund the work of its attorney, Eric Russo, and planning consultants, VHB Engineering worked, to prepare “the necessary SEQRA analysis review/compliance for TDRs and Special Permit Amendments for Agri-Tourism,” according to an April 13, 2023 email from Russo to then-Community Development Director Dawn Thomas, Deputy Town Attorney Annemarie Prudenti and Planner Matthew Charters. The offer was made “due to limited Town staff available, current Town workloads and time constraints,” Russo wrote.
Email correspondence and meetings referred to in the emails continued, with town officials working with the developer’s representatives on a draft code through the summer of 2023.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Town officials accepted help from developer-paid professionals on code change for Sound-front resort plan, records show
The work on the code and the prospective development being pitched by Alfred Weissman Real Estate did not become public until a report by RiverheadLOCAL last July.
A reporter looking into campaign contributions to town officials last year found a Westchester real estate company that had made a $1,000 contribution to the campaign committee supporting Hubbard’s bid for the town supervisor seat, was advertising a “luxury resort and spa” on a “105-acre site on the North Fork Wine trail.”
A separate limited liability company affiliated with the Weissman firm, according to state business records, contributed $1,000 to Rothwell’s campaign committee in July.
MORE COVERAGE: Westchester developer interested in building spa and beach resort on L.I. Sound in Riverhead
Thomas said at the time that the Weissman plan was just “a concept proposal” and acknowledged that it would require a zone change to move forward.
“It would be a zone change — but not for that particular parcel of land. It would be for that whole area,” Thomas said. “And there’s a few other ones that are popping around too that we are thinking about, whether it would make sense for us to make more TDR opportunities,” she said.
A draft of the code was first discussed by the full board at a work session in late December. It has undergone several revisions since then. Next week is the first public hearing on the proposed code.
Representatives of Alfred Weissman Real Estate met with the Willow Ponds Homeowners Association Friday night to discuss their plans for the 105-acre tract comprising nine tax lots owned by limited liability companies associated with Randy Pratt, which has the property listed for sale. The development rights on approximately 71 acres of that property, which is classified as agricultural land for tax assessment purposes, have been acquired by Suffolk County. See Suffolk County Farmland PDR Parcels Viewer.
The developers said they are hoping to build a 90-100 room luxury hotel and spa on the developable portion of the site, which includes a nearly 20-acre parcel on the shoreline. The hotel would have a 300-seat five-star restaurant within it.
MORE COVERAGE: Resort developers pitch sharing use and costs of condo complex’s sewage treatment plant
They asked Willow Ponds residents whether they would be willing to discuss allowing the new development to utilize the condominium’s sewage treatment plant, with payment of a use fee and cost-sharing arrangements to be negotiated for any required expansion and upgrade of the facility, as well as ongoing maintenance.
For complete coverage of this subject visit the Sound-front resorts topic page.
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