Agri-tourism resort uses along the Sound may have been removed from Riverhead’s comp plan update, but the idea isn’t dead yet, in the eyes of the developer looking to build a luxury resort and spa on land next to Willow Ponds condominiums.
Representatives of the developer have reached out to the Willow Ponds Homeowners Association to seek another meeting to discuss the possible connection of the proposed resort to the condominium’s sewage treatment plant, according to Jamesport Civic Association President Laura Jens-Smith.
In response to an inquiry about the status of development plans, Alfred Weissman Real Estate CEO Alan Weissman said in an email Friday he’d like to meet with local civic groups to see if his company and the civics can find “common ground that benefits everyone in our community.”
Weissman did not directly answer questions posed in an email from RiverheadLOCAL Friday about whether the developer is still pursuing the resort plan and whether it has already purchased the property where the resort would be built, nor did he confirm that the company has sought a new meeting with the condominium association.
He said in an email Friday he wants to talk with civic associations about how agri-tourism resorts can have “a positive impact on the environment and Riverhead’s local infrastructure.”
Weissman said he appreciates “the thoughtful comments made by Riverhead’s local civic associations regarding environmental concerns in the Riverhead community, particularly those related to traffic, the scenic views along Sound Avenue, and the protection of our bluffs. Their commitment to safeguarding the beauty and sustainability of our region is commendable, and I wholeheartedly agree with their perspectives on these vital issues.”
However, he said he found “surprising” the civic groups’ opposition to the “proposed agritourism zoning,” referring to the agri-tourism resort code that drew vocal opposition from a wide swath of the community.
The proposed code amendment is necessary to create the resort use in the RA-80 zoning district, where Alfred Weissman Real Estate’s proposed project is located. The district takes in most of the lands north of Sound Avenue from Baiting Hollow on the west to the Southold Town line on the east.
“I would encourage the civic associations to reconsider their stance and engage in an open dialogue with the community about potential modifications to the proposed agritourism zoning,” Weissman wrote.
“Perhaps with some adjustments, we can find a solution that addresses their concerns while also supporting Riverhead’s local economy and preserving our environment,” he wrote.
“I believe it would have a positive impact on the environment and Riverhead’s local infrastructure,” Weissman wrote. “By promoting sustainable farming and tourism, agritourism could help control overdevelopment, preserve open spaces, and potentially reduce the kind of traffic concerns Sound Avenue currently faces,” he wrote, apparently referring to the agri-tourism resort & spa use with the more general term “agritourism.”
“Additionally, the financial benefits from agritourism could provide much-needed support for Riverhead’s school system and other local initiatives, which is particularly crucial in light of the ongoing budget deficits in Riverhead,” Weissman wrote.
[Editor’s note: Weissman asked RiverheadLOCAL to “help facilitate a meeting” for his company and the local civic associations. We declined, since that is not the role of a news organization.]
Jens-Smith said she doesn’t think residents would change their minds about the idea of Sound-front resorts.
“It makes no sense. It would be the end of Sound Avenue,” Jens-Smith said. “It’s the end of the area. I mean, we’re a rural, farming, blue-collar area. If you want to change the character of the whole town, there’s nothing that will do it more than that.”
The Greater Jamesport Civic Association, for which she serves as president, organized community opposition to the proposed code. The group started a letter-writing campaign that resulted in an avalanche of emails to Town Hall objecting to resorts north of Sound Avenue and an online petition that garnered nearly 3,000 signatures.
MORE COVERAGE: Civic group launches petition against resort uses on land along Long Island Sound
The opposition led the Town Board to cancel a public hearing on the proposed code and schedule a community forum on the topic instead. Then, the day before the meeting at which the Town Board was scheduled to vote to adopt the comp plan update, the town supervisor announced the board agreed to remove the agri-tourism resort use as a recommended use in the comp plan update.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard said Friday he was unaware that the developer was still looking to pursue the project.
“But I can’t imagine they could do anything to sell it to the community, I really don’t. I think everybody was crystal clear about what their feelings were about this,” Hubbard said.
“I never got one call from anybody that was in favor of this. Every letter, email, text, people in the stores, people around town, it was all negative,” Hubbard said. “It was never anybody saying, ‘Hey, that’s a great idea. Why don’t we do that?’ So I don’t know how they think they could convince the civics otherwise,” he said.
Council Member Ken Rothwell, who has voiced support for the agri-tourism resorts code, did not return phone calls seeking comment for this article.
In order for the town to move forward with the code absent its inclusion in the comp plan, the board would have to assess the environmental impacts of the use. The extent of that assessment would depend on the board’s determination of whether the use would have significant negative impacts, or whether the use is consistent with the 2003 comprehensive plan’s recommendations.
A consistency analysis for the proposed code was prepared by the developer’s representatives in 2022, according to email correspondence between the developer’s attorney and town officials in August of that year. The attorney, Eric Russo, sent a draft of the code and a document he called “an analysis of consistency” with the 2003 comprehensive plan, to both Rothwell and Riverhead Community Development Director Dawn Thomas.
Copies of the emails, dated Aug. 25 and Aug. 9, respectively, but neither the draft code nor the consistency analysis, were released by the town in response to a Freedom of Information Law request filed by Aquebogue resident Ron Hariri. Harir shared the town’s response with RiverheadLOCAL.
Emails previously obtained by RiverheadLOCAL through a December 2023 FOIL request showed that the developer’s attorney and environmental consultant were working with town officials on the text of the code as far back as April 2023. The emails turned over in response to Hariri’s June 20, 2024 FOIL, but withheld from RiverheadLOCAL, show that the collaboration between the town and the developer’s attorney went back eight months earlier than that, to August 2022.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Town officials accepted help from developer-paid professionals on code change for Sound-front resort plan, records show
The development of the new code behind closed doors coincided with the development of the comp plan update, but it was not part of the comp plan update process and added to the plan near the end of that process.
That rankled residents, who complained about the collaboration between the town and a developer behind the scenes while the public comp plan update process was ongoing, and worried that the impacts of the proposed resorts code were not adequately studied.
For some, such as Jens-Smith — a former town supervisor herself and currently the chairperson of the Riverhead Town Democratic Committee— it’s a red flag.
“The residents of the town need to have a Town Board that they can have an open dialog with and trust what they say,” Jens-Smith said. *So if they’re saying to us at a meeting that they’re pulling this out of the comp plan, are they having backdoor conversations with developers about how to sneak this in under the radar?”
She said she has heard from a Willow Ponds homeowner that Alfred Weissman Real Estate has asked to meet with the homeowners association again to further discuss whether the association is willing to allow the developer to hook up to the condominium’s sewage treatment plant.
“Obviously if they’re pursuing that, and they’re looking to meet with the civic associations to make the case for this development, they’re not walking away,” Jens-Smith. “The question is: Why not? The board has already spoken. Are they being told something else behind closed doors?”
Alek Lewis contributed reporting.
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