Planning Board Dec. 5 meeting wrap-up

A public hearing to shape the scope of environmental review of a proposed mixed-use development on Middle Country Road in Calverton drew few public comments at the last Riverhead Town Planning Board meeting. 

The subject of the scoping session was the site plan and subdivision applications for “Calverton Center,” a development planned for a roughly 16-acre presently vacant parcel on the north side of Middle Country Road, about 700 feet west of Fresh Pond Avenue. The subdivision, if approved, would create seven single-family residential parcels as well as one stormwater management parcel and one parcel where a sewage treatment plant will be built. 

The subdivision would also create a roughly five-acre parcel where a two-story mixed use development would consist of approximately 30,000 square feet of ground floor commercial uses and 36 one-bedroom apartments on the second floor, together with related improvements, such as parking, landscaping, lighting and drainage.

“This project fully complies with both the Hamlet Center and the Residence B-40 zoning districts in which it is located,” Riverhead Town Senior Planner Greg Bergman said as he described the subject of the scoping session.

Mark Miloski of Miloski’s Poultry Farm, located adjacent to the site, asked for a 25-foot buffer between the development and the farm. He also asked the board to ensure screening that will prevent headlights on the property from shining into the poultry farm, because when the turkeys raised at the farm are sleeping outside, the lights would frighten them, he said. Miloski asked that the board consider requiring a chain-link fence with vinyl slats and arborvitae shrubs to achieve privacy for the farm and its neighbors. 

“We’d also like to request that there be no standing water on the property, such as in a recharge basin or the sewage treatment plant, as this attracts migratory birds, and migratory birds carry disease.,” Miloski said. 

Karen Kemp of Timber Park ask the board to clarify whether the road proposed to be built as part of the residential subdivision would be a new town road or a private road, and, if a private road, who will maintain it. 

She also requested that a traffic analysis for the development “include a map or a diagram” to help residents understand how the commercial entranc ewill work and how traffic will be managed. “I’ve tried to read traffic analysis, and sometimes it’s very confusing. And I think just having a map demonstrating how it’s going to work, is, I think,  very helpful, she said. 

“And I think the traffic analysis should also include the proposed charter school that’s going to be on Fresh Pond and Middle Country Road,” Kemp said. “That’s also right around the corner from this development, so it absolutely should be a part of the analysis.”

Kemp said the apartments, depicted on the site plan as one-bedroom “should be considered as one bedroom plus loft or two-bedroom.” A loft space could easily be converted to a sleeping area for an additional person. “So any analysis should include at least two to three people living in each apartment,” Kemp said. 

“And I think it would be interesting to have a survey of vacant commercial spaces in the area to determine if a 30,000-square-foot commercial venture will be supported and economically viable in this area,” Kemp said. “Currently, the Shoppes at East Wind, it’s just down the road, they have spaces available,” Kemp said.

Calverton Civic Association president Toqui Terchun thanked the planning board for including the civic as an involved agency for the purposes of the State Environmental Quality Review Act. She also noted that the area surrounding the proposed  development is a designated environmental justice area and as such, the board has an extra duty to reach out to people within the environmental justice area to make sure they are aware of the plans. She asked the board to ensure that outreach is made specifically to Calverton Meadows, a mobile home community for seniors on the north end of Fresh Pond Avenue. “I would like to make sure that folks there are brought up to speed with each part of this process,” Terchun said. She offered to provide contact information for Calverton Meadows residents if the town planners need it.

Terchun told the board it’s imperative that traffic impacts from all other projects in the development pipeline be considered together with impacts from this project. “I’d like to make sure that the traffic impact of those proposed projects are considered in total, not to segregate out projects one by one,” she said.

Board votes to approve settlement of developer’s lawsuit 

After a brief recess for discussion with legal counsel at the end of the meeting, the Planning Board also approved a stipulation of settlement with HK Ventures, the developer of a 412,629-square-foot industrial complex on Middle Country Road in Calverton, which sued the board over conditions placed on its site plan approval. 

MORE COVERAGE:  HK Ventures and Riverhead Planning Board settle lawsuit over conditions of site plan approval

Conversion of Friendly’s Restaurant building into two uses is OK’d

The Planning Board at its Dec. 5 meeting unanimously granted site plan approval for the conversion of the 4,268- square-foot Friendly’s Restaurant building on Old Country Road into two separate tenancies for a QDOBA drive-thru restaurant and an unspecified traditional restaurant, with 215 and 107-square-foot additions for cooler boxes, along with site improvements including façade renovations, parking lot and paving, improvements, drive-thru installation, site lighting, and landscaping,

In other action at the Dec. 5 meeting, the Planning Board:

Approved, in a 4-1 vote,  a two-lot subdivision application titled “Mallas Property,” dividing a 1.09-acre parcel at 85 Second Street, Jamesport, into two lots that are significantly smaller than the 40,000-square-foot minimum in the Residence B-40 zoning district. One lot is 21,776 square feet and the other is 25,567 square feet. The Zoning Board of Appeals on Oct. 10 granted relief from the minimum area requirements of the zoning code as well as relief from the 150-foot minimum lot width requirement. 

Planning Board member Joe Baier cast the dissenting vote. “I’m going to vote no on this resolution because I was hoping that the ZBA would be able to stop this property, because I just think it’s a beautiful piece of property and it’s going to be torn apart. So I vote no,” he said.

Approved, in a unanimous vote, a two-lot minor subdivision for Susan McCarthy at 934 Sound Shore Road. The Zoning Board of Appeals granted several variances for this application, including minimum lot size (12, 271 and 8,816 square feet, where the minimum lot size in the Residence B-40 zoning district is 40,000 square feet), lot widths of 50 feet, where the minimum lot width is 150 feet, and relief from the impervious surface coverage limit of 15% where the impervious surface area on Lot 1 is 33.4%.

Approved, also in a unanimous vote, a two-lot minor subdivision of an existing 14,557-square-foot parcel at 230 West Main St., approximately 300 feet east of Osborn Avenue, into a 7,153-square-foot lot and a 7,404 square foot lot. The property is in the DC-3 zoning use district and the new lots required and were granted variances from the code’s requirement for minimum lot width.

Granted preliminary approval to an eight-lot major subdivision titled “Carson Woods,” for a roughly 20-acre parcel located at the terminus of Ziemacki Lane and Fox Lane in Jamesport, in the Agricultural Protection zoning district.