Full Transcript

Thank you. Happy Wednesday, July 8th, everybody. We're here for a town work session. It is 10 a.m. Before we go any further, Councilman Rothwell, would you help us lead the pledge? Yes, 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, sir. One brief announcement? Absolutely. We have a lot of time for announcements. I'm just going to wish my wife a happy anniversary. It is our 31st year today, and I love her very much, so thank you. Happy anniversary. That's all I got. That's okay. We want to, again, just thank everybody for the 4th of July parade. And I believe our town board, we're going to be posting a video later thanking everybody individually. And so we want to do that. And we're so excited. It was a great time. We also want to let everybody know that July 9th, the Live on 25, is postponed. As we continue to get everything back from the storm and make sure that that event is as successful as it can be. Does anyone else have any other announcements? Yes. Yes, sir. So Saturday, July 11th, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Riverhead. That's on Northville Turnpike. There is no-cost lung cancer screening event. So that is no-cost on this coming Saturday. The other one is a little early, but it's Sunday, July 26th. The Rec Department is doing a Rev Up for Rise car show at Stotchke Park. That's 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Okay. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? I will actually comment about the James Park Carnival coming to town. Coming this Tuesday, July 14th, is the kickoff. On the 15th, Wednesday, is the parade that begins at 7 o'clock down Main Street in Jamesport. And the carnival will continue until the 18th. And on the 18th, they will have the fireworks, which is always a fantastic show. So I hope to see everybody down there. Absolutely. Anyone else on this side? Nothing. All right. So we want to make you aware, again, we made an announcement last night, But when I that our highway and buildings and grounds have been working to do the storm removal and to help you the residents with the removal of the debris from your yard, our yard waste facility and actually the highway yard across the street will both be open to all residents starting today, July 8th through Sunday, July 12th. You need to present ID that shows you're a resident, but you do not have to have a yard waste sticker for this time period. Excuse me. Next Monday, July 13th, normal rules will reapply. But again, only single axle, no dump trucks, no commercial vehicles. Please utilize this smartly and wisely. We're trying to help you get stuff cleared from your yard, and we ask that you take advantage of that while you can. So with that said and no more announcements, we'll move into our open session Our first one is today is going to be matter surrounding site plan application for 318 East Main Street and Riverhead. We did flip-flop Okay, so sorry Mr. Now ski will wait matters surrounding police fees and special events with councilman Rothwell and sitting in today is our captain We'll see. Good morning. Good morning, Captain. How are you? Good. Thanks. I just wanted to have a discussion on when we have, like, Chapter 255 private events in the town of Riverhead, and often when they take place on private property, and if there's police needed, they cover the costs, as well as fire marshals and application fees, permit fees, and so forth. But one of the things that we seem to be struggling with a little bit, least I have concerns about is that there is the current town rules and regulations so within our code is that when an event takes place on public grounds specifically like town property the applicant is not required to pay the police department fees so like we recently had an event and I think based on what Chief Frost had sent me. So there was an event that was held down at the Duck Ponds in Wading River. And in police fees, just so everybody has an idea, it was $5,670 in straight time and $3,500 in overtime, which basically cost the town $9,300. So we spent $9,300 on basically a private event to be held down there. And so I think that we as a board should least consider the fact that if it's a private event and it's it's somebody else that is making money off you know we're getting a profit from it it's not a nonprofit and we're not referring to like duck pond day and things like that where I see those as community events but when a private you know person comes in and wants to hold this event it's costing the town money and so they're not we're not being refurbished so this could I think could set a trend going forward in the future where all sudden events would be held at at Grand Jebel Park, Stotsky Park, going all around the town, and then what people may, event coordinators may find the ability to circumnavigate around the police costs. So I think we at least have to have the discussion about that and whether we need to address that and change that in our own code. I'll just, you know, I will bring up that I went over with Chief Frost a while ago what they do in the village of Patchogue in their event application, and I also spoke to the clerk as well, is you file an event application, let's just say a vendor. Vendor files, it's $150. Out of that, a portion of that then goes to the police department, and that's the way they do it in the village of Patchogue. So I think that's something we should look at. And I think certain events, like the Polish Fair, is like more of a tourism event for the whole town, And I think, and I don't want to do anything that jeopardizes those large-scale events that are like, to me, drive tourism down there. They bring people to our restaurants, to our shops or retail. It helps promote that. But if it's a private event that's not really doing that, that's when I have concerns about the loss of revenue that the town is spending on that. Yeah, I can tell you that in terms of police services in 2025, I think we recouped about 20, between 25 and 30 percent of the costs. so it was almost $112,000 spent and about $25,000 recouped from all the events. It's terrible. So it's a lot of money being spent. I know the chief told me that $1125,000 is $17,000 to $19,000. The fireworks is a lot of people. That's why hopefully he was saying that if we had a town square that could hold a lot of people, he wants to do it it takes a lot less officers and it's a lot you know the cost goes way down so right when we're closing intersections and they have that many people you need officers or tcos or whoever we can get at every intersection the outside intersections just so that the rest of the community who is not going is not affected by traffic sitting for hours and you want to make it as reasonable for everyone who's in the area great yeah i think it's a it's been a growing concern for years you know we're we're a tourist town where things happen and so i think it is something wise that we need to look into i know chief has spoken to at least myself about it he's raised his concerns and thank you for bringing it forward i think it's something that we could look at we need to have a real plan of action and probably speak to our legal team and and see what we can do and because we you know we don't want it to become a you know we're picking right but there has to be some clear boundaries there and then kind of like the show mobile what it cost us and some other things in our town that we want to be helpful it's like when there's an event at Tanger Mall well they whoever's doing that picks up all costs you know but all sudden if you said all right let's let's not do it a Tanger Ball let's do it at Stotsky Park you circumnavigate around the police department fees and that's when it just you know and it's not you know I think we could take a look at you know and classify some of the large scale community events again like the Polish Hole and Duck Pond Day and those are you know real driving forces for restaurants and and I I don't have so much concerns about investing and covering the cost of police to help assist the businesses in one way or another you know but it's these individual private events and I think that they're just going to keep growing in that way we just addressed the town board meeting yesterday the cost of the showmobile because that was an extreme loss so when the showmobile goes down there it's like Now we're giving people the police at cost, and then we're giving them a showmobile, which was a significant loss, so we corrected that yesterday, and I think this is the next step in correcting how we go forward. And I think that we should consider legislation that if it's a private event, that they have to cover the police costs. I think that it will also be helpful for your department to be able to budget better for the equipment that you need and the updates to the department instead of it almost seems like wasted money where it should be going to something more beneficial. We try, if there's an event, if we have extra units to not have to pay the overtime, we'll take some of those officers if we have extra or the COPE officers, and then they'll head to that special event to try and alleviate the overtime costs. But really, those officers should be on the beaches, on the road, doing traffic patrol, all those other things. Yeah. And at the end of the year, everybody always points to the high cost of police, and this is one of those that they fail to see the benefit that they get to use that they go to those events. Right. you know it does only service a certain population so yeah across the board I think it's something we need to put our heads together and work on yeah because we figured out we're losing on the show mobile it's nowhere near what you're losing but it's $60,000 a year when you look year after year after year ten years that's $600,000 not just the snowmobiles the personnel it's pretty up and somebody that's everything that goes yep exactly yeah right cut costs for taxpayers try to make it so that everybody isn't bearing the burden of private events that's great this one event was five police officers and two c tco officers as well so you have seven you know men and women that are tied up for that whole day right um and i just it's it's concerning so i just think if everybody you know the board was kind of then we could sit down with the town attorneys and try to draft some type of legislation to address it. There are already events that we've you know the board has passed for this year to take place so whether or not it's it's going to be something that takes effect immediately or the town board needs to think of something that's going to be effective you know January 1st towards you know the upcoming year. And so I think that's something also the town board has to affect because there are events that are going to take place that again for private companies and we're going to be covering a large-scale cost of those private company events. I don't know how the board feels in terms of doing something immediately and notifying them or making it as of January 1st. I think we probably, sorry. No, no, no, you start before me. I was going to say if we're going to meet with our town attorney I think we probably should talk to them about what that looks like and where we can draw a line and set that starting line. So, go ahead, Joanne. Sorry. I was going to suggest that maybe we can see if there can be a 30-day grace period, you know, for people that have already started planning an event but haven't submitted their 255 application yet. After 30 days, it becomes implemented. And I think maybe, like, for example, what we did do for, like, Duck Pond Day is the town board co-sponsored that event. And so I think that some of the events, like Polish Fair or something that comes in, there's the potential for them to ask the town board hey listen we're concerned about cost but this is an event that that you know drives tourism to the whole town you know could the town board choose certain events to say okay we will co-sponsor that because it does you know immediately you know you know allow a lot of businesses to succeed a lot of businesses rely on that and i don't i don't want in any way see like those events not take place so i don't want anybody thinking wrong but i just think this this is you know and so maybe the town board needs to select handful of say okay polish bear polish festival duck pond day you know the ones that really what we see is tourist events you know that attract businesses to them and then maybe the town could choose to co-sponsor and help cover those costs yeah any money that we could recoup would be obviously beneficial for the police department okay you can have a computer department that's good stuff so that's my thought process everybody's okay almost yeah we'll continue to of this conversation yeah it needs to be addressed okay thanks captain thank you captain you have a great day no more weather events today our next matter matters running site plan application now for 318 East Main Street Riverhead with our planner Donowski come on to the table it's a great place to be looking forward to it you and that pen are not getting a lot I was going to say the same thing. Whose desk did you take that off of? Mine. It just doesn't like me. Could you just introduce our guest? If you want. Good morning, everyone. My name is Brian Padilla. I work for Cover Engineering. We are the engineering firm that has been contracted by the client for 318 East Main Street. Thank you, sir. Nice to meet you. So I just wanted to bring to the board the planning permit. we've received a site plan application. It is for Entitled 318 East Main Street. It is an application looking to demo and reconstruct a rear commercial addition. So a little bit background information on the property. So it's located at the shopping center. It's 314-324 East Main Street. It's Suffolk County Tax Mat number 129 to 34.1. It's on the northwest corner of Union Avenue and East Main Street and it has it's in within multiple overlay districts. Overlay districts are including East Main Street, Urban Renewal Area, Town Riverhead Historic District, Downtown Riverfront Overlay and the Town Riverhead Parking District. It's both residential and commercial uses surround the property. So there's a mixture of all with retail, restaurants, single family residences, things of that nature. So they are proposing to actually, there is currently a rear addition that was built, I believe, from building to part records. It started back in 2018. there was a stop work order that was issued in regards to a rear addition being built without proper approvals so they were told to obtain the proper approvals at that time and to get a building permit at that point they submitted an application for a 56 square foot rear access enclosure and then more information was requested at that time by the chief building inspector and that permit is still open. At this time, the last correspondence that was in that file was from 2020 and it was from the Riverhead Sewer District to the Suffolk County Department of Health, Wastewater Management, indicating the grease trap was installed to comply with the Riverhead Sewer District. In 2024, going forward, the code enforcement was on patrol and noticed that the commercial addition was being built in the back entrance behind the existing deli. So a stop work order was then issued again and indicating to obtain the proper approvals to the rear addition. At that point in March of 2025, a site plan application was submitted to legalize the existing addition at that point. It was determined at a later date to demolish and reconstruct the addition that is still currently there. So they're looking to tear the one down and then build within like and kind in place. So just going through the application a little bit more, some of the improvements that are going to take place and some that staff is going to recommend. So currently in the front of the building, if you take a look at page four, it shows the front facade of the deli that is doing the rear addition. So currently the awning is in disrepair. So we were asking as the staff to make sure that the awning gets removed and repaired as quickly as possible and efficiently as it's a public safety concern. And to also just obtain the proper permits to be obtained during that time to replace the awnings. I will note that I have driven past there at this point and it has been taken down at least the pole so that it is no longer a safety hazard. So that is a step in the right direction. Also, there is currently two signs at the existing suite. If you take a look at page four again, you can see that it says village delicatessen and deli chaplain. I just want to make sure, I believe from Town Code 301-249, that it only permits one primary sign per business location. So I would just want to make sure with the proper architectural review board that that is permitted, if not to get that rectified. So I just recommended to get that situated and legalize existing signs and uses. Are you saying that both of these are one entity? Yes, exactly. So the two signs are one entity. At 1.318 and 320 were two separate tenants. There is a building permit that shows that they were actually merged together, the two suites. and I believe from that the two signs remained up top however it's now one entity so I would just want to make sure usually as code states that it's one sign for one business but I think due to when they converted they got two signs so I just want to make sure that's okay yeah my only concern there is is that if they decide one sign and they make one big sign that goes across the whole thing this might look better than one big giant sign that they might be right able to have yeah I think a or B if they brought up the idea to them showing the ideas that they're thinking either the one big sign or if they just want to stick to the one small sign that currently has the size I think the ARB would be able to I'm good with two small signs as opposed to one big large sign yeah yeah I agree leave it to the architectural review board and then you can see what happens from there in regards to the lighting when I went on the site visit I did note that it met the height requirements however the fixtures just weren't compliant so I made a note recommending that that all the lighting is compliant um they did supply me spec sheets um that showed that they were going to be compliant with the exist with the lighting code at this point in time uh dumpster enclosure um currently it's a uh it's a dilapidated uh six foot uh chain link fence um they do propose on the updated site plan that they are going to relocate it and build a new dumpster enclosure so that was one of my concerns in the beginning and they seem to be compliant and rectifying and they agreed to relocate all of that the parking and access wise for this property like i said in the beginning it's within the downtown overlay parking district so they have the ability to use the municipal parking. There is one right across the street of Union Avenue. So with that, there's not enough parking on site. However, they can use the municipal parking. I will note that there is not really a crosswalk on Union Avenue. So if they do park in the municipal parking, I would just suggest maybe possibly looking at trying to put a crosswalk across Union Avenue. so pedestrians can get across safely. And other than that, I did also notice when I was on my site inspection that there were patrons that were walking into the deli that were parking on a private property that is to the north. So there is, I believe, I don't know if it's in the station of Elitz, right? I believe that it's that parcel. There is a lot of parking there. I do know people park there quite often. So I did see that a lot of the patrons that were going to the deli were actually parking in that parking lot, which is a private property, and walking over to the deli. So one note that I did make is to possibly explore the idea of a parking agreement of some sort or something of that nature if it's going to continue being that everyone's parking there and walking over there or we're just going to have to dedicate that the municipal parking is and municipal parking is the only way to park and no parking on the private property that's to the north of it at that point um and then i overall i just had a minor little um things that should be addressed the if you look at page seven um the front roof of the commercial building um you can see that the roof roofing is in disrepair um and then i have checked i've been driving by to my way to work in the morning um i've seen since then that um also there's other sections that of the asphalt single shingles that are actually coming apart um so i just made a note of it to rectify that that should probably be repaired um be repaired and addressed um because you don't want any further problems down the road with the building. Drainage structures in the back, I did see one at the time. A drainage structure was overflowing, so if the property owner could just maintain that as well. And for the most part, that was about it. There's a landscaping buffer that I was going to talk about that's also having to do with the northern parcel, the private property that's to the north that people walk through. Due to people walking to and from the two parcels, over the time the vegetation has become dirt and concrete. So I was saying to revegetate that, determining whatever the answer would be to either the parking agreement or things of that nature. Is that fence post? There used to be a fence there maybe? that is a uh a sign used to be there so i'm not completely sure um i do see there was like a parking i think you used to say parking for only for the property that was there yeah something of that nature maybe um so i just asked to revegetate that um area determining whatever becomes either a parking agreement or if everybody's just going to use the municipal parking at that point. Can I just ask a question? Yeah. As far as the landscaping goes, you're not probably going to have an agreement between the two businesses before the site plan approval, right? So what do you want to do as far as your recommendation in the meantime? I would recommend to at least leave it be and let it re-vegetate with grass. It looks like there is grass growing there. um it's just very yes very slowly and in the pieces that um is not concrete and dirt if you look like towards the edges um if as long as nobody walks on it and it gets cleared i believe that grass would vegetate and grow there um but then it would have to be maintained is it grass our weeds. I can look into that. But yeah, I would, if there's nothing that's stating about the shared parking agreement, I would suggest getting revegetation at that point, just to make sure that there's a delineation between the two properties at that point. in terms of people parking you know in insatiable eats at this particular point with all the construction you know i'm not going to go crazy on where people can park on the other side on the northern side of main street because so much parking is currently taken away so i'll leave it up to the property owners to decide what they want to do with each other you know because i don't know where you know what i'm saying i mean absolutely i just wanted to bring it up as i I appreciate that. It's private. I just wanted to bring it up as if it was somebody's private property. And technically, if they want to make agreements for the future, that's fine. But that's between the property owners. The only other thing that I wanted to state was the windows. That is currently for the commercial building. So in part of the code, in 301.143.A.2, states that windows may not be obscured by more than 10% of opaque banners or either permanent or temporary advertisement or signs. So taking a look throughout the photos that I gave in the staff report, besides the, I mean, the deli is one thing. and I would say that they need to comply with that section of code as well. But overall, for the whole parcel, I would just preferably, I would want the property owner to tell all tenants that this part of code stands. I have walked past there, and there's blinds that cover the whole window. That's technically, as the code states, not permitted, and that's actually some of the reasoning of why the awnings are permitted. We're trying to keep the windows open and for people to look into. So with that, with the shade, it's technically not permitted, but that's why the awnings are allowed, so that they can provide shade just in a different realm. So I did make the suggestion that the property owner should go to all the tenants and suggest to take down anything that's covering the windows more than that percentage other than that it's been for referred to sephakali department of health the fire marshal i do have to send them the updated plans they got their original plan but then i have to send them the revised one the i know that they have been working with the town of riverhead water district and they were in the process of getting the rpz um information dealt with yeah that was uh approved that was approved um and then for i also referred it to the town of overhead sewer district um i will note that the reason i bring up the prior history from um 2018 is because there is a note that says that a grease trap was installed um so therefore that does work for a deli that's what what they needed. So that should be all handled, but I will re-refer it to them to make sure.

It was referred to the Town of Riverhead Engineering Department. I believe he gave me a note. I just didn't write it down since then. So I will give that note out. He had one comment. The Landmark Preservation Committee, they approved the plans on June 1st. SHPO, New York State Historic Preservation Office, they had no comments. And the architectural review board said the rear elevation was okay, which is the area that they are rebuilding, and to return with the repairs to the front facade and awning. So they pretty much got the okay for the rear addition to reconstruct. What about the benches? Are they permitted under town code to be in the front like that? So I can further look into that. We allowed out since COVID. What was the question? The benches. Since COVID, we've allowed outdoor eating. So that's probably where you want to look. And I do see people eating out there. I would hate to take that away from them. Yeah, I can further look into it and see what the outdoor eating. They may just need a permit for it. Yep. Absolutely. And if that's the case, then I can just put to receive the proper permits and approvals for it. Outdoor dining. Yep. But, yeah, I just wanted to bring this in front of the board just because, as you can tell, there's a lot going on here um it's very uh very happy to uh work with the town riverhead to get this up and running the right way and yeah we're assuring that everything is getting addressed properly thank you thank you did you have anything else you wanted to add to it or um i think uh marissa has done a great job of explaining the the job itself really this is really just about the addition to the deli it's a simple straightforward addition where it's just only gonna be used for storage purposes so it's not like he's expanding the deli to add more seats or anything like that which will require I'm pretty sure a change of use application to increase you know people are allowed to eat in there it could be a deli to like a restaurant but that's not the case we have addressed any concerns about the site plan a comment such as the lighting for example, we did a sanitary calculation making sure that the addition of the deli itself won't overload the sanitary system, the grease trap for example, or we also made sure that we're showing properly how much flow increase is going to be added to a public sewer. but overall everything is straightforward we're doing making good progress we've been coordinating with town Riverhead properly plan department like we said before we an RPC it was required and we got the approved right away and we're looking forward to just keep working with you guys and after we have an approval from planning we're looking forward to proceed with the submission to a building department so we can get the applications to proceed very very thorough job thank you thank you thank you for spending time with me yesterday going over this I had my eyes on it through the landmark Reservation Commission but it was nice to hear your perspective of it thank you I learned a lot thank you I appreciate it it's good I'm happy I'm doing a great job working where I am it's very nice thank you guys and thank you for both of those those matters oh just a second we'll adjourn to executive session and where we'll cover personnel matters surrounding a change in status of an employee was triple to matter surrounding the hiring of an employee was triple to and they matter surrounding the purchase of real property with Howard and Hurley may I have a first and second to go into exec so all in favor aye thank you

Thank you.