Civic Group Seeks Legal Counsel Regarding Wading River Proposal, Town Zoning

A group of residents have decided it's time for Riverhead Town to take them more seriously.

To that end, the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, Inc., has sought legal counsel regarding the proposed project in Wading River.

And the prospect of future ligitation is not off the table, said Dominique Mendez, president of the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, Inc.

In recent months, Mendez, about a proposal for the North Shore Country Plaza, a project proposed on the Condzella/Partridge family property for a three-building shopping center, including restaurants, that would be sited on the north side of New York State Route 25A in Wading River.

This week, Mendez said the RNPC has sought the legal counsel from the Northern Environmental Law Center of Sag Harbor, who prepared a legal memo stating that the applicant’s argument that lot coverage requirements should basically disregard split zoning and be calculated as if the entire parcel were zoned commercially is “clearly erroneous."

The July 30 legal memo submitted on behalf of the RNPC states that, “According to the applicant, any application of the town code that differentiates between the split portions of the parcel would be a re-write of the definition of ‘lot’ under town code.”

The memo goes on to say that the applicant's proposed interpretation, offered by attorney Peter Danowski, "would frustrate the purpose of the zoning districts and renders the distinction between the districts on the zoning maps irrelevant and/or meaningless. This is clearly at odds with the board’s intent in adopting zoning legislation. If the town wanted the entire lot to be considered as part of a commercial zoning district, it would have drawn the district lines that way.”

The site plan and letters from Danowski indicate that the current North Shore Country Plaza plan utilizes the full 10.9 acres to calculate its dimensional requirements. These dimensional requirements represent maximums allowable and instead of using solely the six plus acres of the commercially zoned portion of the lot to calculate them, as is standard practice, the applicant used the entire 10.9 acres, including four plus acres zoned two-acre residential, the memo states.

“The two unsupportable ‘interpretations’ combine to create an oversized, unattractive group of stores and restaurants and the commercial use of several acres that would have otherwise remained natural open space," Mendez said. "All the excesses they claim they’re allowed by basically disregarding the residential zoning on over four acres leaves them no room to have the central square, pedestrian walkways and parking lot landscaping specified in the design guidelines."

Mendez added that while engaged in the Wading River corridor study, the town board contemplated removing the existing split zoning on four parcels in Wading River but decided to retain the zoning.

“It seems as though whenever an applicant wants to circumvent town code they merely invent a wild theory that would enable them to get what they want and then try to spin it as a valid interpretation," Mendez said. "These so-called interpretations are becoming more and more outlandish as applicants and their representatives appear to become emboldened by the various boards’ apparent willingness to act as if the most unsubstantiated and illogical ‘interpretations’ are reasonable.”

The legal opinion states that design guidelines are not discretionary; only the planning board, and not an applicant, can waive a guideline. 

The RNPC, Mendez said, sought legal representation to make their voices heard in a discussion she believes will have wide-reaching implications. "It makes you wonder why such a bizarre interpretation wasn’t immediately dismissed by the planning board and its counsel," she said.

The proposed shopping center is approximately 45,000 square feet and includes at least two restaurants. Of particular concern, Mendez said, is one proposed building that she said would be over 22,000 square feet that would be built on what was once farmland and is now open space.

Her concerns center on the possibility "that the town board will allow yet another shopping center to move forward in Wading River," Mendez said. She added that "since the town board  to halt the progress of these projects" while conducting a Wading River corridor study, the town "has approved Knightland," a project proposed by developer Kenn Barra, "and has backed off rezoning the Zoumas parcel," a project called Central Square, just east of the CVS shopping center, citing that progress was too far along on the project.

Mendez said residents were fearful the town board would use the same rationale to "back off their supposed concensus to rezone that parcel so it could only be developed with condos or offices." 

One prime concern, she said, was that the town board would approve the over-22,000 square foot building when the intent of the zoning in place was to limit buildings in that area to 10,000 square feet; something the board said was being fixed in the wording of the town code.

Mendez said she did not understand why the town's planning board was even formally reviewing the project when it did not meet town code requirement; under rural neighborhood business zoning, or BCR, a small cluster of at least four buildings is required and the current plan for the proposed shopping center has only three, she said.

The group sought legal counsel, Mendez added, because "the implications are great."

Of Danowski's interpretation, she added, "It's really hard to deny it's not a valid intepretation," one that would set a precedent for other projects townwide.

"We hired this firm to be sure we are talking to the town on their level," she said. "All of a sudden an applicant can pick and choose design guidelines? This is just too important. We felt we needed a legal opinion."

Neither Danowski nor planning board members immediately returned calls for comment.