Politics & Government

Preserve, Develop, Balance: 2 Sound Avenue Parcels Illustrate Conflicts

Two parcels owned by Kenn Barra highlight larger conflict between preservation and development in Riverhead.

While one parcel on Sound Avenue owned by Kenn Barra looks very close to being preserved, another looks very close to being green-lighted for a commercial site-plan approval.

Barra, who owns the Inn and Spa at East Wind, recently accepted an offer — — for a piece of property at the corner of Park Road and Sound Avenue. The 4.1-acre parcel is one that, pending final approvals, will become the site of a 9/11 memorial park.

Further west, at the corner of Sound Avenue and Route 25A, Barra's 'Knightland' project — containing over 32,000-square feet in 24 retail spaces — must clear one more hurdle before the site plan is OK'd and sent to the Planning Board for final approval.

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The contrast illustrates Riverhead's challenge to balance preservation and development, a conflict touching down from to to .

Supervisor Sean Walter said such at a and reiterated on Wednesday how he thinks the balance of the preserved and developed parcels would benefit town residents.

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"We can't go out there and preserve every parcel," Walter said. "We have to build a tax base ... Some of the environmental groups want to preserve every parcel known to man, but we just took . This all has to be balanced by a tax base."

To others, however, the "balance" seems more like an illicit trade-off.

"The supervisor has repeatedly discussed some sort of balance or trade-off," said Dominique Mendez, co-founder of the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition. "That's kind of disturbing. An attempt to connect the two seems as though Mr. Barra sold his land because it's not in his best interest in order to gain approval for another project ... One should have no effect on the other."

Bob Kelly, the brother of Tommy Kelly — the firefighter after whom the current 9/11 memorial at the corner of Park Road and Sound Avenue is named — said he agrees with Mendez, that the two parcels are "apples and oranges." He said he foresees a "park/forest" at the parcel with individual trees dedicated to those who lost their lives in the attacks.

Mendez and RNPC have — — demanded a commercial moratorium ranging from six months to a year while the town completes a $42,000 corridor study in Wading River, a measure the Town Board does not currently seem open to. Walter has stated that, "the economy is the moratorium," a phrase Mendez called a "sound byte."

In addition, Walter said he doesn't foresee the study changing the use of the Knightland parcel — that the study's use would be more for suggestions for other parcels in question.

Walter's opponent for supervisor in less than two weeks, Phil Cardinale, has said that he would require an environmental impact study for the project, which presumably would not be complete until after the corridor study.

Planning Department Director Rick Hanley will be holding off on approving Knightland until the project gains Department of Transportation approval for the work that has to be done on Route 25, an approval he said was "imminent."

Barra's lawyer, Peter Danowski, said the planning department could even immediately grant the Knightland project a conditional approval based on the DOT verdict, and that the project may have DOT approval before the next Planning Board meeting.

He said he foresees the final county approval for the Park Road parcel about nine months away.


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