Full Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Greg. Sorry, Bob. What's this, a cop? An ambulance. All right, I have one quick announcement today, and that is that Friday, this Friday, December 12th at 12 p.m. the groundbreaking ceremony to include demolition of 127 East Main Street to make way for the new Riverhead Town Square. There's a flyer here on the table, Justin. I don't know if you can grab a picture of it in the middle of the table. So that's exciting. We can't wait. We've been waiting a long time for this to happen, and that will be in Friday at noon right down at the town square. So if you want to come out, come on out. Dress warm. I think it's going to be a little chilly. We will have dignitaries there from the state, the county, obviously the town, and from all over the place. Anybody who helped us gather grant money for this has been invited, so it should be a nice little groundbreaking ceremony. So Friday at 12 down at the town square. All right. All right. On open session, we have one item today, and that item is matters surrounding chapter. 301-3, golf cottages, and that will be with planner Greg Bergman. All right. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. All right. So this is just a follow-up from a conversation we had a while back. We spoke about golf cottages, which were a recommendation in the COP plan. The vision was to create locations and venues for people wishing to stay on golf courses. There was a definition in the COP plan of it. One of the significant pieces of it was the use of transfer of development rights. After our last work session, I've had some conversations with some board members, so I do have a revised definition of a golf cottage. The major changes was, as requested by the board, size of the golf cottages was increased from 600 square feet to 1,200 square foot max. We removed the limit on the duration of the stay. The thought was, if there's a member of a golf course, if they wanted to come up and stay seasonally. That could happen. Removed language regarding number of bedrooms, kitchenette, bathrooms, et cetera. Clarified the definition of golf cottage a little bit so that the golf cottages can be freestanding structures or attached structures with common walls separating individual units. A thought behind that was just to reduce infrastructure costs rather than build several individual freestanding units, combined foundation, et cetera. Less septic systems so that it could share multiple cottages. But that's a good point. Potentially. Whatever would be. I mean, even just from roadway, water, infrastructure, all related infrastructure and construction costs. And then I just added language in the definition of a golf cottage to state that, being that we're removing the duration of the stay, language to just state that golf cottages shall not be used for the purposes of establishing residency within the town of Rittrad. These are not designed to be residential units where people live year-round. You don't have to deal with school children, et cetera. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. one TDR per golf cottage. So if there was a golf course with 18 holes, they can do one up to a maximum of one per hole. So we could, in theory, see 18 golf cottages that would require the redemption of 18 transfer of development rights. Right now, the way the TDR receiving districts are arranged and defined, there would only be two golf courses that could currently be eligible for these golf cottages. Those are both located in the Residence A80 Zoning Use District. Those are the Friars Head Golf Course and the Beany Hollow Club. Other golf courses in town, such as Long Island National, Woods at Cherry Creek, the Vineyards, those are located in the Agricultural Protection Zoning Use District, which is not currently a receiving district. And Great Rock is located in the Residence B80 Zoning District. So without some additional legwork to make those two districts receiving districts and also make those sites eligible for the Zoning Use District, for potential golf cottages, we would need to do a GEIS to make those receiving districts. Do we know how many acres they are, the two that qualify approximately? I believe Beany Hollow Club is around 155, give or take. And I'm not sure how... Friars Head is big. I want to say close to 300. But don't quote me on that. So again, in theory, if we were talking about a 150-acre site, if they wanted to build 18 golf cottages at 1,200 square feet, and again, they could be a two-story unit, the amount of floor area and building footprint you're talking about on a 150-acre site is nominal. So not a real big impact from that. So that's the changes to the golf cottages in a nutshell. The board's okay. I can have a resolution to schedule a public hearing, pending comments that we get from the public. After the public hearing, I'd send it to the Planning Commission if we need to make any changes. We can go from there if the board's comfortable. I think Councilman Kern liked that you struck out a minimum par of 70 based on his current game.

I'm a top golfer, so you'll never catch me on a golf course. About as much as I do, too. And I never get it in the hole. I really think that this is an important thing for the town because I think that this is going to add to our tax base. So when people are complaining about the budget and we're trying to find ways to... to increase the tax base, by doing something like this, this really has no negative impact on the town itself. And it's going to generate money for the town, which will be on the back of the taxpayer. It will help them. So I know that the first ones that are going to come out swinging, saying we don't want this, are also the ones complaining about the taxes. So... I was going to add, too, that I see a big distinction. I know some people had come up and said, well, why can't we have... Airbnbs in our homes and residential neighborhoods? I see a big distinction between this. These are businesses. This is a commercial operation. These are commercial operations. So I would be in favor of this wholeheartedly for the golf cottages or farm cottages, but not in residential neighborhoods. So I see a big distinction. I think this is great. As you said, you went for tax base. This is terrific. I'd like this to be part of a two-step thing because I think from where we go from here, too, is we need to address in the near future, for farming operations, to have cottages on farming operations where somebody might go out to a vineyard and stay for a week and learn how to process things. And it gives... We need to find different facets to make certain that our farmers, as well, can survive financially. And so I think this is a good start. I think we should carry it over into the farming operations, as well, because they're all looking for ways to survive. We saw what happened to Calverton Lakes years ago. And it just was an operation that couldn't survive. And we don't want that to be a history... We've got to learn from history that doesn't become future issues. We need to give everybody the opportunity to survive. Yeah, and having gone from 15,000, 16,000 acres in 1966 of farmland to now 7,000, this town needs to do everything it can. And I mean town boards now and in the future to do everything we can to save the land. To save what's left of farming. We all say proper balance. This is proper balance. This is large vistas, spacious areas, as you're saying, over 125 acres of mineral structures to give them that financial ability to survive. Correct. And I mean, the fundamental principle of the transfer of development rights program is the concept that you're transferring development rights. You're not just purchasing the development rights outright, you know, restricting them. You are身身身身身身身身身 身身身身身身 身身身身身 身身身身 身身身身 身身身 身身 身身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 身 program there were people who spoke about it that like you know that's the fundamental function of the program you may have to accept in order for the TDR program to work you have to accept that there may be increased density elsewhere while preserving land in the main farm belt which I mean that's that's how it works so the board's amenable I can prepare a resolution I can look at the dates for public hearings and get that scheduled likely sometime in January right thank you Craig okay that's that's the only matter we had on for open session in a moment we'll close and go into executive session to discuss under personnel matters surrounding an unpaid leave of absence for an employee with stripling to matters surrounding terms and conditions of employment to an employee with council of Howard under contractual we have matters surrounding contractual agreement between the town and Riverhead and CSEA with Hubbard we have matters surrounding terms and conditions of an employee with Howard and Prudente we have matters surrounding contractual agreement for professional design services with Thomas and Depola we have matters surrounding contractual agreement between the town of Riverhead and a USGA with Hurley Howard and charters and we amended and added one more item it's matter surrounding contractual agreement between the town of Riverhead and Island Fabrication and the City of

Apparicators and that will be with Councillor Hurley uh can I have a motion to close open session and go resolutions yeah hello let's not skip the resolutions and it even says it right on my paper right here all right we're going to do resolutions and then we will go into it sounds good if the board's ready jump right into it so resolution number one Water District Capital project number eight two three zero five budget adjustment resolution number two Water District Capital project number eight two three zero one budget adjustment and just to clarify the first resolution developer born funds the second resolution lateral transfer of funds between the water districts funds number three authorizes promotion of a detective number four authorizes promotion of a detective number five ratifies the reclassification of a code enforcement officer Spanish speaking to ordinance inspector Spanish speaking number six ratifies the transfer of an employee this is a civil service mechanism he's leaving one of our farmhouse is leaving going to a different municipality and the transfer as opposed to a resignation just allows him to not have to retake the civil service exam on the other end number seven appoints deputy highway superintendent number eight ratifies and accepts the resignation of a part-time police officer

number nine improve CSEA 2026 through 2029 contract

number 10 authorizes the community development department to apply for a grant

number 11 awards request for other proposals for audit services for the town of Riverhead Community Preservation Fund

number 12 awards rebid for food and meat products number 13 extends bid for directional drilling service Riverhead Water District we have several resolutions in today these are all extensions for the most part we'll go through them obviously but um for existing contracts for the related to the water uh Water District so this one as I said is a one-year extension for directional drilling number 14 extends bid for electrical system maintenance and emergency service or the Riverhead Water District there are usually extension provisions built into these contracts contracts and most of these that we're talking about are exercising a one-year extension um did I read this number 14 electrical system maintenance and emergency service Riverhead Water District I think I did number 15 extends bid for mechanical maintenance and emergency services Riverhead Water District this is the second one-year extension we're exercising with that one number 16 extends bid for process control system maintenance and emergency service Riverhead Water District same thing second one-year extension number 17 extends bid for hydraulic control valve maintenance services Riverhead Water District second one-year extension number 18 extends bid for the river for the water distribution system maintenance and emergency services Riverhead Water District number 19 extends bid for e-waste collection and recycling rebids are I mean extension of bids are generally good because when you go out for a new bid almost never do they come back lower because prices have gone up so this is this is all good stuff number 20 authorizes town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for installation for water mains for 203. East Main Street Riverhead Water District

number 21 authorizes town clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for PFAT treatment at well number 5-2A SRF project number 1959 number 1951 Riverhead Water District and just so we're clear that the Water District had received a Grant and now we're going to go out um to publish and post for bidders to help us identify a company that will install the required filters. Number 22, authorizes the Town Clerk to publish and post notice to bidders for chemical for Riverhead Sewer District. Number 23, ratifies authorization of Town Clerk to publish and post request for proposals for construction manager for new headquarters building for Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Number 24, adopts local law to amend chapter 301 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Zoning and Land Development, Article 18, Business Center Zoning Use District. So this resolution and the next one, which I'll read and then we'll ask Greg Berman to just come up and give a kind of a reminder for the board and for the public because we had these public hearings back in August and several things have happened since then. Second resolution on the same subject, adopts local law to amend chapter 301 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Zoning and Land Development, Article 22. Shopping Center SZ, Zoning Use District. So with that, we'll just ask Greg to come up. Greg Berman, Board Member, Zoning Use District of Riverhead Town, So just to quickly recap the board's, refresh the board's memory on the Business Center, Shopping Center, Zoning Districts. A couple of changes. Right now, both of the Business Center and the Shopping Center Zoning Use District have a required 35-foot unoccupied front yard. Right now. As we've denoted in a small footnote on our dimensional regulations, one of the changes was to bring that kind of into the forefront of the actual supplementary guidelines of those zoning use districts. The other change to the Shopping Center Zoning Use District was to expand the permitted uses. So right now, as you travel along 58, obviously as you're driving, you can't really tell the difference between the Business Center Shop, Business Center Zoning District, Shopping Center Zoning District. So we're expanding the uses in the Shopping Center. We moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. You moved it down. areas. Again, I don't think there's anything, you know, we're talking about adding, you know, restaurants with drive-thrus, additional, you know, freestanding development, which was previously discouraged in the shopping center zoning use district. But if you redevelop some of those underutilized areas with some additional commercial development, you had nothing that's going to significantly change the traffic patterns on 58. You know, I mean, the road already carries about 36, 37,000 daily vehicle trips. So if you had another couple of retail stores or restaurants along 58, it's not going to change the world in its entirety. So again, just expanding the allowable uses in shopping centers zoning use. Photo maps coming back. Yeah, I've got my rolls of film waiting to be, I've had them for about 30 years waiting to be developed. It utilizes the parking lot because not that many people come and park and shop anymore. It's online a great deal. So you don't need these huge parking lots. This is a great way to get, again, commercial. Tax revenue. Yeah. In the main commercial corridor. Again, we're not expanding anything anywhere where it's not already, you know, fully developed. You know, these are paved areas. We're not knocking down wooded areas to develop these sites. You're redeveloping underutilized parking areas. Piggyback on what Denise is saying. So now when we look at shopping centers, are we reducing the amount of parking that we're looking at? Because I look at Costco, I look at Target, I look at Home Depot. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale. Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale Sale ! Sale Sale and that should be taxed. So there is a provision which is currently in certain zoning use districts that allows for, so for example, in a shopping center, when you have multiple uses that may have different parking requirements, you know, like you've got retail, you may have a restaurant, there's provisions in certain zoning use districts that allow for a reduction, I believe it's up to 20% in the amount of required parking upon submission of a credible evidence by a licensed traffic engineer. So, you know, what we've seen, for example, is you've got a site which is, you know, we'll have someone come in and do a parking study, you know, they'll get an engineering firm to come in and do traffic counts during peak periods, talk about how many vehicles entering, exiting, how many of those spots are used, how many are vacant. So there can be up to a 20% reduction in the required parking to allow for those sites with multiple uses. So in a case where if one of these sites wanted to be redeveloped, if they were unable to meet the parking, they could provide evidence that basically confirms that the site is underutilized and there can be a reduction that's built into a site plan review. Can't we require that? Just looking at satellite images, you know, looking at near map, you know, can't we just require that? I mean, why would we want them to ask us as opposed to us saying, we already know that you don't need that much parking? So the problem with near maps, I mean, it can provide a limited space, snapshot, but there is quite, you know, aerial images on near maps are probably only updated like eight to nine times a year. It identifies a date, but it doesn't identify what time it is. You know, so there is real, you know. Okay. Absent of near map, I mean, the evidence is right there. We see it every day. I don't disagree with you. I mean, again, but just saying we see it, that needs to be backed by some type of empirical data. Again, we can just say anecdotally, yeah, I, Councilman Kern, I'm not disagreeing with you. I drive past these parking lots and I say they're underutilized, but exactly how many stalls are underutilized? To have an understanding of what the actual numbers are to understand how much flexibility. You know, we see a lot of times, you know, we've had meetings with people who are looking to redevelop their sites. The problem with the, you know, sort of, I don't want to say the problem with the development history, but there's been so many different changes. So, for example, there's a medical office site which was developed decades ago. There was a provision in our code that you only had to park what's called usable floor area. Now, I believe that probably excluded things like hallways, mechanical rooms, et cetera. But what that does is it sort of binds your hands as you come down the road. It doesn't really allow for a flexible redevelopment of those sites when you've already carved out, you know, like. That's a really good point. I understand. So, if I've got a building and I've got all these exclusions, it doesn't really allow me to come in down the road and if, you know, certain tenants leave, changes, uses change. So, you know, we have spoken about, Matt and I have spoken about just, you should park your box for less of a, for lack of a better term. And we did sort of remove those exclusions because previously, you know, before we did the, before we adopted the comp plan, we did a bunch of code changes. One of them was to remove that sort of carve out exclusion again because it just creates problems down the road. Right. That we have to sort of get creative in how to address. It's much cleaner if you just say, I've got a 10,000 square foot building. Here's where I'm parking. It just allows for more flexible reuse down the road. But I would rather see it that, okay, you make sure that you have the land available for parking but not pave the whole thing unless you know for sure that you actually need all of that paved. So, that's already in the code and we've exercised that recently. There's a provision that allows you to do that. It allows for land banking. Basically, you still have to demonstrate that you have the ability to provide the required parking on site but it doesn't require you to actually pave and develop it. So, for example, Lowe's on 58, they have a land, what's called a land bank parking area on the south side of the building fronting Pulaski Street. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head but it's probably in the neighborhood of like 70 or 80 stalls which again, without digging into how, you know, how much land is there, it's probably, you know, how they got to that number. The fact that there was, you know, you had all of that parking at Lowe's which includes all those parking lots which they store mulch in there, like they're never parked. The fact that there's more parking that's required, again, just, that's why we have that land bank provision because there's absolutely no sense to just build parking that you're never going to use. They could have land banked a lot more. A lot more. You know, and it's in their interest because they don't have, they have less to pave when they have to repave. I mean, and this is, you know, and this discussion, I mean, this dovetails in just the nature of retail. You know what I mean? Yeah. Growing up, you know, in a little bit west when I would go to Smith Haven Mall when I was growing up, if you went there on a Friday night, you were parking in the outskirts of the parking lot. You go there now and it's pretty much a ghost town. So the retail market has changed but again, there's provision, so there are mechanisms in the code to allow for those reductions. There's mechanisms in the code to allow for that land bank parking. So we could require land banking. Could we do that? I mean, we allow it. You know, if. We allow, okay, but I'm saying, you know, could we require it? I mean, in the planning boards, and again, there's not many undeveloped sites on 58 that we're talking about. So, you know, for, just for the, I feel like we're kind of getting off the changes to shopping center. But, you know, there's really only a couple of vacant sites. You know, I mean, you've got the property behind the Sargent's Rec Center that's a vacant site. Beyond that, there's not many undeveloped sites on 58. Yeah. So we're going to be, you know, talking about reuse of underutilized areas. Obviously, if any site came in for significant redevelopment for like demolition and complete remodel, you'd look at land banking. But. For instance, with Tanker, we're looking at maybe a movie theater being able to come in there. Is that right? Any type of view, any type of significant redevelopment of a site, again, like do I see like Riverhead Center demolishing their buildings and completely, you know, constructing? Not right now. But who knows? Who knows what's going to happen down the road? So to the point, many of those mechanisms to, you know, land bank, parking and stall reductions are already in the code. We're not changing those. We're, these code amendments would just allow for redevelopment of existing underutilized parking areas with additional uses. Great. All right. Cool. Thank you. Greg.

Okay. Resolution 26. Authorizes supervision. Supervisor to execute professional service agreement with AM Weber Associates. This is for the Riverhead Water District. Number 27. Authorizes the supervisor to execute a professional services agreement with DXA Studio Architects. This is for the East End Arts Pavilion, proposed East End Arts Pavilion on the main road. I'm sorry, on Main Street next to the town square. Number 28. Authorizes supervisor to execute a license agreement with Race Track Not Street. This is for the East End Arts Pavilion on the main road. This is for the East End Arts Pavilion on the main road. Number 29. Authorizes supervisor to execute a license agreement with the El C to utilize runway at EPCOW. This is for storage materials up on the runway. Number 29. Ratifies authorization for supervisor to sign a consultant professional services agreement with Carol Sclafani. Number 30. Cancels letter of credit posted by Eastern Site Development, Inc. as Town and Riverhead Drain Layer. Number 31. Establishes time of regular meeting with the community. Cancels the Cancel the of the Community Development Agency for 2026. Number 32, establishes time of regular meetings of the town board for 2026. And these both just follow the same schedule that the board has more or less adopted the list, several years. Resolution 33, adopts a local law to amend Chapter 231 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Fire Prevention, Article 1, General Provisions, Enforcement. Number 34, adopts a local law to amend Chapter 289 of the Riverhead Town Code titled Vehicles, Traffic, and Parking Regulations, Article 2, Traffic Regulations.

Number 35, approves special event Chapter 255 application for the Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation, 5K run Act of Valor Foundation. Number 36, approves special event Chapter 255 application for Racetrack Knott Street, 2026, Spring Fling at EPCAL. Number 37, pays the bills. That's it.

Thank you, Devin. A moment, we're going to close open session and go into executive session to discuss the items I read before. Can I have a motion to close open session and go into executive session? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, open session is closed. We will now go to executive session.

Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale? Are there any questions for Executive Sale?