A proposed zoning rule that would allow a resort to be built on farmland north of Sound Avenue in Riverhead is expected to move forward despite opposition from some residents and groups.
The Town Council is considering a new draft of a bill that would allow some of the farmland preserved as part of the development to be used for indoor and vertical farming inside a barn, screened from Sound Avenue. Resorts can only be built on land over 100 acres, and at least 70% of that land must be preserved for agricultural use. Town officials are touting the proposal as a way to preserve farmland.
Local farmers and the Long Island Farm Bureau, an agricultural industry group, have pushed to allow any type of agricultural production on the land, including vertical farming, town officials said. The proposal has been shelved multiple times by town officials due to disagreements with farmers and among the farmers.
Town council members have rejected a request from some town residents and groups, including South Old Town and the East End Group, to remove from the new comprehensive plan a proposal that would allow development of what town officials call an agricultural tourist inn and resort. Council members overruled resident opposition at a recent meeting.
At least one developer is interested in developing such a resort. Alfred Weissman Real Estate, a Westchester County-based development company, featured North Fork Resort, a “luxury resort & spa” on Long Island Sound, in the “New Developments” section of its website last summer. An early draft of the proposed rules was developed with input from the company’s attorneys and planning consultants, according to emails obtained by Riverhead Local. The company, a company associated with it and one of its executives have donated to the political campaigns of Supervisor Tim Hubbard and City Councilman Ken Rothwell.
MORE COVERAGE: Hubbard and town officials defend developer involvement in proposed agri-tourism zoning code
The Town Council is scheduled to consider a resolution on Tuesday to hold a public hearing on the legislation on Aug. 20. Council members were presented with the proposed legislation on Thursday in a resolution to be taken up at the July 16 Town Council meeting, but council members did not discuss it.
The proposal has been amended since it was presented to the committee in early June. The previous bill said conservation land could only be used for “agricultural production dependent on the use of agricultural land,” as defined by the state’s Agriculture and Markets Act. That language was intended to specifically prohibit indoor farming facilities, which city officials argued were out of character for Sound Avenue.
The new draft bill states that no more than 5 percent of the reserved land can be used for soil-independent agricultural production (such as vertical farming), provided that production is “within traditional barn structures and adequately shielded.” [the] “Sound Avenue Historical Corridor”
Rothwell, one of the bill’s strongest supporters on the committee, said in an interview after the work session Thursday that the new draft establishes “common ground” to allow farmers to farm indoors while “preserving good aesthetics for the area.” He said the town also incorporated other suggestions from the Long Island Farm Bureau into the bill.
Rob Carpenter, director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, said in a phone interview Thursday that he and other farmers have not yet seen the bill. “We appreciate the town’s collaboration with the agricultural community and look forward to seeing the revised draft as it goes through the Agriculture Advisory Committee,” Carpenter said, declining to comment further.
The latest proposal also includes restrictions on resort development on beaches along Long Island Sound: Developments can only install one walkway or staircase, and “such improvements may not disturb more than 10 percent of the bluff area,” the bill states.
Town Council members briefly discussed the agritourism resort during a June 27 work session, during which town planners asked the Town Council whether the idea should remain in the town’s new Comprehensive Plan. The topic has received heavy criticism from residents and groups during the comprehensive plan update process, with 32 of the 62 letters the town received after the public hearing opposing the idea.
Board members unanimously voted to keep the proposal in the plan before Hubbard announced he could not support the code changes proposed earlier that month. Hubbard said he met with about 20 farmers, but none of them supported the measure because it limited what farmers “can do.”
“I’ve said publicly many times, I support what farmers support,” Hubbard said during the debate. “The farmers don’t support this, so I can’t support this.”
Supervisors declined to comment after Thursday’s work session, saying they had not read the new draft of the bill.
Asked Thursday whether he expected there would be significant opposition to the bill from local residents, Rothwell was adamant in his support.
“If you read this bill in its entirety, you’ll see it’s a good thing for the community,” Rothwell said. “It’s a measure to protect the integrity, it protects the agricultural preservation, the historic corridor, the landscaping, the views and the way it looks today. We hope that 50 years from now, 100 years from now, people will be driving down Sound Avenue and think, ‘Wow, look, this is still an agricultural community.’ That’s what this bill is about.”
The proposal would require the agritourism resort to be built on at least 100 acres in the RA-80 zoning district, which covers most of the land north of Sound Avenue from Baiting Hollow to the South Old Riverhead town line. At least 70 percent of that land would be used for agricultural production, and the remaining acres could be built as a resort with a spa, restaurant, meeting rooms and other amenities. The rules would allow buildings up to 300,000 square feet on the 70 acres of farmland, including greenhouses, barns and housing for farm workers. Agricultural and non-agricultural buildings would be allowed up to 35 feet in height.
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