Resorts on the Sound are wrong for Riverhead

The issue of so-called “Agri-tourism” resorts on Sound Avenue will be decided very soon.  These resorts were slipped into the expensive updated “Comprehensive Plan” for Riverhead’s future. 

These developments would require a zoning change pending before the Town Board. Six residentially zoned parcels north of Sound Avenue have been identified – for starters. Even just six would mean 900 hotel rooms, restaurants seating 2,250 diners, acres of asphalt parking lots, spas, tennis courts, meeting rooms, and – the big money maker – weekly weddings. Have I mentioned the traffic? Have I mentioned the encroachment on the protected bluffs of Long Island Sound?

What to do? 

We have two remaining opportunities, in addition to letters and phone calls. The first is at a Town Board meeting inconveniently (intentionally?) scheduled at Town Hall for Sept. 4 at 2 p.m.—the first day of school—where adoption of the “comp plan” is on the agenda. (NOTE: requests have been made to change the date and time for this session, so please check before going).  

As written, the updated comp plan recommends these hotel/motel resorts; so we need to attend this meeting, speak, bring signs and tell the Town Board we want this land use removed from the plan. This concept was never suggested by anyone from Riverhead. Rather, it’s the clandestine design put forward by a well-funded Westchester developer. The firm’s paid consultants have “worked” with Town officials, unbeknownst to the public, outside the comp plan process, to finagle the zoning changes to allow these resorts.  We don’t want these resorts in Riverhead and they should be expunged from the plan once and for all.

If by some stroke of providence the Town Board listens to the people and strips the resorts from the comp plan, we will be finished.  End of story. All praise for our elected officials. But if they don’t, we have a second bite at the apple. There will be a Town Hall public summit on September 18th at 6 p.m. to discuss the pending zoning change to allow these resorts.  It is critical to pack the room. Come with questions, reasons you oppose the zoning, and alternative ideas for ways to preserve agricultural land.

We need a large showing to make crystal clear these resorts are wrong for Riverhead and unwanted in our town.  We surrendered Route 58 to let it become the shopping center for the East End; let’s not let the Town Board turn our beautiful, bucolic, and historically designated Sound Avenue Corridor into a similar traffic nightmare and just another playground for the rich and famous like the South Fork.  If we don’t prevail, this will be the end of Riverhead as we know it.  Please, show up and be heard. Oh, and don’t forget those personal letters to the Town Board.

Tom Hughes

Tom Hughes is a resident of Northville.

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Correction: Due to an editing error, the preview excerpt originally published with this column incorrectly stated the day of the next Town Board meeting. It will take place on Wednesday rather than Tuesday, due to the Monday holiday.