Route 25A shopping center gains preliminary site plan approval: Planning Board meeting wrap-up

The 37,000-square-foot commercial development on Route 25A in Wading River known as Venezia Square received preliminary site plan approval Thursday  from the Riverhead Planning Board.

The site plan proposes a campus-style shopping center, which would include:

• Two 1,500-square-foot, 16-seat take out restaurants
• One 3,000-square-foot, 76-seat restaurant. 
• One 4,000-square-foot bank building.
• Two 10,000-square-foot retail stores. 
• One 7,000-square-foot retail store.
• 171 parking stalls 

The site plan proposes roughly 36% of the property to remain vegetated and undisturbed.

The development would require a new traffic light at the intersection of Route 25A and Dogwood Drive, allowing plaza visitors to exit west on Route 25A and north on Dogwood Drive. Potential traffic impacts from the development and the addition of a traffic light on a stretch of Route 25A that already suffers traffic backups has been a prime concern of area residents. The Planning Board retained Louis K. McLean Associates to conduct a traffic impact analysis for the proposed development.

Approval was granted without comment by the board or public in a 4-1 vote, with Planning Board member John Hogan voting no.

The site is currently being considered by Suffolk County for preservation. Last month, the County Legislature authorized appraisals of the six lots comprising the 6.34-acre development site located within the Business CR (“Rural Neighborhood Business”) zoning district on the north side of Route 25A just east of Dogwood Drive.

MORE COVERAGE: County eyes preservation of Venezia Square site in Wading River, as Riverhead Town continues review of shopping center plan

Also on Thursday, the Planning Board held a public hearing on a mixed-use development proposed for a roughly 16-acre parcel on the north side of Middle Country Road, 485 feet west of Fresh Pond Avenue called “Calverton Hamlet Center.” The development is proposed by TJOC Real Estate Holdings of Stony Brook.

The subject of the hearing was the developer’s draft environmental impact statement, subdivision and site plan applications.

A neighboring resident, Thomas Houghton of South Path, who said his property adjoins the development site asked that a “woodland buffer”  depicted on the site plan be “covenanted.” He also expressed concerns about the building design, which he said seemed out of place for the area. 

Another neighboring property owner, Mark Miloski of Miloski’s Poultry Farm in Calverton, reiterated his concerns about standing water on the site, which might attract “aquatic birds.” He said it’s important to keep “aquatic birds away from us,” considering the potential for the spread of diseases such as avian flu by migratory and other fowl. Miloski also questioned the placement of a fence on the site, which he said had the potential to block motorists’ ability to see oncoming traffic.  

The Planning Board on Thursday also accepted a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed major industrial subdivision called “Calverton Industrial Subdivision,” also known as “OSTAD”) for properties at properties located at 3511 Middle Country Road and 2140 River Road in Calverton.

The board also scheduled a combined public hearing on the Supplemental DEIS, the DEIS and the subdivision application for Nov. 6 at 6 p.m.

The 131-acre site, located immediately to the west of Splish Splash Water Park, stretches south to River Road. The Planning Board in 2022 required an environmental impact statement for the proposed development and shortly after the board accepted the draft impact statement for review, the Town Board adopted a moratorium on development of industrial land, pending the completion of the comprehensive plan update. 

The zoning of the site in question was changed from Industrial A to the new Calverton Industrial zoning use district. The Planning Board required a supplemental DEIS with “a very narrow scope to just study the changes of the zoning code and analyze those impacts,” Riverhead Town Senior Planner Greg Bergman said. The new zoning code reduced all the applicable dimensional regulations, so the site plan was changed to comply with the new rules.

Board Member Joseph Baier questioned the seleted location of the sewage treatment plant to serve the subdivision, proposed to be located on the southern end of the site.

“You have to build all of the roads and put all the utilities in to get to that furthest point,” Baier said. “It’s a terrible expense…for the first lot,” he cautioned.

“Good point,”  Keith Archer, the attorney for the applicant, replied. “And apparently that was all considered when the engineers laid this out and recommended it to our client,” Archer said.

Board members, Bergman and Archer also discussed traffic flow from the site. The subdivision will not have access to River Road, nor will it be able to gain approval for direct access to the Long Island Expressway from the south end of the site. Westbound traffic can be directed to use Route 25 to access the expressway from the exit 72 westbound ramp, rather than via Edwards Avenue, but eastbound traffic will either travel on Route 58 or, if headed to the South Fork, to Edwards Avenue toward the Riverside traffic circle.