The Riverhead Town Board voted Thursday to assume lead agency on an expansion of the Walmart store on Old Country Road and scheduled a public hearing for Nov. 19, moving forward a project that would add about 26,835 square feet to create a grocery-incorporating supercenter.
Staff said the project will require redemption of 1.312 additional transfer-of-development-rights credits and that Suffolk County has required signal and pedestrian improvements, though the county softened its original demands. The applicant also revised the site plan to eliminate only one parking-lot landscaped island instead of two after staff objected to the amount of asphalt.
The board also classified a proposed 120-foot Verizon wireless tower at 285 Hubbard Avenue, near homes and Riverhead Fire Department Station 2, with a negative declaration under the state environmental review law. The tower would hold six carrier sectors inside a fenced compound, and staff recommended added landscaping to screen the site's existing parking lot.
A separate 120-foot tower proposed for the Baiting Hollow Club on Sound Avenue, down from an earlier 140-foot, seven-carrier design, won lead agency status and a negative declaration.
The board granted the South Shore Guild a Chapter 219 coastal erosion permit to replace 210 feet of bulkhead and bring in 25 cubic yards of beach fill. A Guild board member said neighboring property owners gave permission and are happy with the arrangement because the applicant is paying for the bulkhead replacement.
The board heard a developer's request to redraw the Laurel subdivision, a 70-acre, 34-lot project split between the Riverhead and Mattituck school districts, to keep the lots in a single district. Staff said the alternate layout would require a roadway nearly 2,800 feet long, exceeding code limits on cul-de-sac and block length, and one member raised concerns about placing more homes next to an active farm, saying, "One of the problems I have being, from a farm family, everybody wants to live next to a farm. And like Greg says, until they start farming." Another member suggested the two school districts might negotiate a contract rather than moving the boundary. The board did not vote and said it would discuss the issue further.
The board found the draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the Breezy Hill concrete and asphalt crushing facility on Middle Road incomplete, requiring revisions on the project's approval history and its zoning board record, before an amended version of the resolution carried unanimously.
In other action, the board granted 90-day extensions for minor subdivisions known as Manor Lane and Jets 139 LLC, approved its Sept. 17 minutes, and said the Summerwind matter remains status quo and in negotiations. No members of the public spoke during the comment period.