Riverhead’s comp plan approved, despite public objections — and board’s dire warnings about looming fiscal trouble not addressed by plan

Riverhead’s comp plan update was unanimously adopted by the Town Board Wednesday afternoon at a meeting that drew a standing room-only crowd. 

The plan as adopted does not contain the controversial recommendation to allow agritourism resorts and spas on lands north of Sound Avenue zoned for residential use. See prior story.

The previously scheduled Sept. 18 public forum on the concept is canceled. 

Removal of the agritourism recommendation was not without contention, with board members arguing that the resort development would increase the town’s tax base and provide much-needed property tax revenue to support the town and school district. 

The recommendation was removed after it drew vocal opposition from community residents and farmers. 

That was the only change to the plan since the final draft was circulated in July.

For key recommendations in the adopted comp plan, see prior story.

Despite their vote to adopt the document and praise for the planning consultants who worked to develop the plan with town staff, committees and members of the comp plan steering committee, board members expressed reservations about how effective the plan will be to provide a blueprint and “financial way forward” for the future. 

Council Member Denise Merrifield said the agritourism resort use was a measure that would have preserved farmland even as it generated substantial tax revenues to fund town and school budgets. More than 6,300 acres of farmland in town are unprotected and the town does not have the resources to protect them, especially with the town’s lagging transfer of development rights program. The town needs commercial development, Merrifield said. 

Rejecting commercial development ignores “immense tax problems that are coming,” she said. “To think that EPCAL is going to solve the problem is unrealistic. That case is going to be caught up in litigation, in the civil suit for many years to come, I would say five or more,” Merrifield said.

More residential development is going to add to the problem, she said. “Keep an open mind” about alternative types of development, Merrifield said.

Council members Ken Rothwell and Bob Kern, as well as Supervisor Tim Hubbard agreed.

“People don’t want to develop. They don’t want industrial development on industrial land,” Kern said.

Residents can’t keep saying no to everything, he said. “We have a real problem,” Kern said. “I don’t hear any solutions” coming from the community, he said.

“We have been working on this for — I’ve been at it for three years now,” Rothwell said of the comp plan update. “There is immense work that’s gone into this. I support what’s in this. I do have issues with what’s not in this,” Rothwell said. 

Rothwell reiterated concerns about growing the tax base. He said the town would likely have to pierce the tax levy cap to fund next year’s budget.

“We need to find financial ways to move forward,” he said. “For every parcel of land that we preserve, it comes off the tax roll, it’s less income and we as the remaining residents have to make up for it,” he said. “And that’s the most difficult thing.”

“When you immediately, hastily remove items like agri-tourism and say let’s not even discuss it, let’s not even consider the idea,” Rothwell said, “you remove another potential method of revenue to be brought into the town.”

He lamented the cancellation of the Sept. 18 public forum about the agritourism resort code, which he said was a great opportunity to hear the community’s ideas.

“I agree with what’s in this comprehensive plan,” Rothwell said. “I think it’s great work, but I think it does not overall put forth a payment plan for how we move forward as residents in the future. And I think that’s still going to need work to be done…I think it’s still lacking in what we need to create a payment plan for the Town of Riverhead.”

Hubbard said he has been “not in favor of this for quite some time,” referring to the agritourism resort code. He said he did not disagree with the other board members about taxes and development. He said he thought if it had come to fruition, it probably would have been a good thing for the town. 

“Traffic was really not going to be an issue because of the limited number of rooms. Farmland would have been preserved through the transfer of development rights. It would have helped our farmers,” Hubbard said. “I have to listen to the people I represent. That’s why I changed my mind from the beginning when I thought this was a great tool to preserve land,” he said. 

Hubbard commended BFJ Planning for producing “an excellent product.” 

“I firmly believe we did our job and we will be successful,” Hubbard said. “Having said that, we have a lot of problems ahead of us. Our farmers are selling their land. Our farmers cannot afford to make a living [by] regular farming. That’s why agritourism has become so big out here.”

Local farmers have to compete against farmers from Canada who are subsidized by the government, he said. Potato farms and duck farms are gone.  Farming as a business has gotten too hard here because farms cannot stay competitive enough to survive, he said. The upcoming generation is not interested in staying in farming, the supervisor said.

He also said the town can’t realistically preserve all of its remaining farmland because preservation is just too costly. “We have to find a way to preserve it and we have to also help the farmers,” he said.

“Sitting down and putting public people together and work as a community to solve this is the way it’s going to be done,” Hubbard said, advocating for creating a task force. “We have to listen to the community, we  have to work together for what’s beneficial to the town.” 

Residents who spoke at the meeting generally thanked the board for being responsive to the community’s concerns about resorts on Sound Avenue. Others asked the board to delay the vote for the plan, or to hold additional meetings to hear from the public about key issues.

“The comp plan is supposed to be the community’s vision for Riverhead over the next 10-20 years, and I think it’s pretty clear that we don’t want resorts and I thank you for doing the right thing,” said Kathy McGraw of Northville. “But that said, there’s still a lot of work to be done. We have to come up with alternative ways to preserve agricultural lands. And sadly, the expensive seemingly never ending comp plan that you are about to adopt doesn’t really help at all, doesn’t really come up with any good ideas for preservation.”

McGraw said the agri-tourism resort legislation forum that was scheduled for Sept. 18 should be repurposed for residents to give input on how to preserve farmland. 

Hubbard said he wants to form a citizen task force to generate ideas about how to preserve farmland.

Merrifield said the town received significant public input — through surveys and questionnaires, public meetings and committee meetings — since it began developing the comprehensive plan in 2020. The current Town Board did not initiate or prepare the comprehensive plan update, she said.

Joan Cear of Jamesport said the Greater Jamesport Civic Association continues to oppose several recommendations in the plan, including easing restrictions on accessory dwelling units that would make them easier to build.

She also said the civic group opposes the recommendation that land developed with uses not allowed under current zoning — also known as non-conforming uses — be rezoned so that development on the land conforms to the town code. This change would enable some commercial enterprises to expand without the need for special permission. 

“I’m surprised that given all that input [from the civic groups] that Ms. Merrifield pointed out and everything, that some of the things that people objected so strongly to made it to the finish line,” she said to applause.

Karen Kemp of Calverton said she doesn’t feel like the plan is the vision of the community. She said putting industrial zoning in Calverton is an “awful thing to do to the people who live in Calverton.”

“You missed an opportunity to focus industrial development in EPCAL,” she said. The zoning would allow massive industrial developments across the street from farm stands, she said.

Pilar Moya-Macera, executive director of Housing Help Inc, a nonprofit housing counseling organization, applauded the Town Board for adopting the comprehensive plan with recommendations that would make constructing accessory dwelling units easier.

“This significant move is expected to play an important role in increasing access to homeownership in Riverhead,” Moya-Macera said. “And it is my hope… that other East End townships follow your lead.”

Barbara Blass of Jamesport, who was a town council member when the town adopted the 2003 comprehensive plan, said that while there is “a lot of great information in the plan,” she doesn’t feel the same excitement about the town adopting the updated plan that she did in 2003.

“It was a culmination of long and hard work by the people of our community. The atmosphere was abuzz with a sense of accomplishment,” Blass said. “Was it a perfect document? Heck no. We acknowledged that right out of the gate.There was going to be a lot of work that was yet to be done.”

“But there was overwhelming support from stakeholders and residents,” Blass said. There were only five letters of opposition to adopting the plan, she said.

Blass said “there’s a lot of work that has to be done” after the new plan is adopted. 

“And I think the community really wants very much to get behind a plan [that] will accomplish their vision,” Blass said. “I think that you’re hearing for the most part that’s not happening, or it hasn’t happened completely.”