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After months of public outcry in Southold, plans for Main Road historic corridor may be nixed

Plans to have the Main Road corridor listed on the national and state registers of historic places — a proposal that raised recent concerns by the Southold town board and many residents — may well be dead on arrival.

Four of the five members of the Riverhead Town Board have signed a letter to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation seeking the immediate withdrawal of Riverhead’s application for the historic district designation, RiverheadLOCAL has learned.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, the town board liaison to the Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission, was the only holdout. According to Councilman George Gabrielsen, who drafted the letter, Giglio declined to sign the letter, saying she wished to first speak with members of the commission, which is meeting next on Monday afternoon.

The letter went out Wednesday afternoon, Gabrielsen said.

Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission chairman Richard Wines said Wednesday evening he had not yet seen the letter, a copy of which was sent to him, according to Gabrielsen.

“I’m reluctant to comment on something I haven’t seen and know nothing about,” Wines said. “But I’m hoping we can sort this all out.”

Gabrielsen drafted the letter after a petition in opposition to the listing was filed Friday with the Riverhead town clerk. The petition cover page states it contains 75 signatures of property owners within the proposed district; though one of the sheets containing several signatures is a duplicate.

“If you look at the names on that petition, it’s just about every business on Main Road, all the old families. They want no part of it,” Gabrielsen said. “I think it’s loud and clear.”

For months, the Southold Town board has expressed reservations to the plan.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said that at first, the board was generally supportive of the idea when it was first presented. “Our position has always been that we support it, if the property owners agreed with the proposal. Our chief complaint was that the district was submitted to New York State and nominated without any effort to include the property owners who would be impacted by the new district. Whether intentional or not, that seemed heavy-handed. This should have been an issue with substantial public discussion prior to the nomination process.

On Wednesday, Southold Town Councilman Jim Dinizio, who said he was speaking just for himself and not for the entire board, said, “Councilman Gabrielsen and I spoke about this. My main problem is not with the proposed corridor but the heavy handed tactics Mr. Wines used to try to accomplish his goal. Also, Southold residents will only qualify for any money if they have a business in the corridor. Residents of Southold cannot qualify because of higher income levels.”

Dinizio said he hoped to urge the board to send letters of support for Gabrielsen’s position on the issue.

Last week, Southold Town Councilman Bill Ruland came before the Mattituck-Cutchogue board of education to voice his opposition to the proposed national historic corridor, stating that under the plan, property owned by the school district, the Laurel building and property, would be included.

“There has been much misunderstanding about the proposal and there was tremendous ineptness on the part of the state’s office of historic preservation, to notify property owners directly,” he said.

Ruland said he was speaking on behalf of Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, and said points he found “troublesome” included the fact that the plan included all property owners in the designated area.  In order to opt out, residents would have to send written, notarized letters, and still, there was “no guarantee you’ll be removed,” he said. Despite how many parcels a landowner has, he said, each person would only get one vote, he added.

Also, he said, the plan was “flawed, because it’s not a split vote. The Town of Riverhead outnumbers us 10 to one. That’s troublesome.”

Ruland asked the BOE to review all documentation and take a position; Southold Town, he said, has a “lengthy list” of residents with objections. “I do believe the Town of Southold will take the position that we’re not in favor of this, and see if we can be removed,” he said.

The state, Ruland added, was first pitched the plan by Riverhead but, when they got to the town line, “It was so bucolic they decided the district needed to go further. The State of New York can do whatever they want. The initial proces was initiated by the Town of Riverhead and the historic preservation commission without the knowledge of Southold Town. They didn’t bring us into the loop until after, and I found that offensive.”

This week in Riverhead, the list of signatories includes former councilman and current Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals member Otto Wittmeier and his brother John, owners of the Modern Snack Bar in Aquebogue, and fellow Main Road business owners: Cliff Saunders, owner of the Elbow Room restaurants; Matt Kar, owner of Jamesport Country Kitchen; Scott and Bob Gammon, owners of Woodside Orchards; Jeff Grathwohl, owner of Jamesport Automotive; John Anderson, owner of East End Asphalt; Semra Gorgulu, owner of Jamesport Liquors; Ron Goerler, owner of Jamesport Vineyards; Sean O’Neill, owner of O’Neill Power Equipment; and others.

Walter Gabrielsen and Robert Gabrielsen, the councilman’s brother and son, also signed the petition. They helped circulate it, the councilman said.

“I had nothing to do with the petition, but I oppose the listing. They own the property and it’s their right,” he said. “If they don’t want it, we should not support it.”

“The further east you go the more opposed property owners are,” Gabrielsen said, noting that there is a great deal of opposition in the Southold portion of the proposed district.

“They want no part of it in Southold,” Gabrielsen said.

“I’d say it’s pretty much time to just call it a day on this issue.”

Wines is hoping that’s not the case.

“Technically the Landmarks Preservation Commission must withdraw the application,” Wines noted, though he admitted the commission would not pursue the listing without the consent of both town boards’ consent.

“What I’m not at all clear on is what the people gathering the signatures told property owners, since some of the people who signed the petition own properties that are already in the Jamesport hamlet historic district,” Wines said. “So they are worried about a district that doesn’t have restrictions but they’re already in a district that does have regulations.” The Jamesport hamlet historic district was adopted under the Riverhead Town Code and subjects properties to use regulations.

Wines and state officials have repeatedly stressed that listing a district on the state and national registers does not impose any new restrictions on land use within the district, nor does it trigger new regulations or additional layers of government review. The only time new restrictions may apply is if a property owner takes advantage of tax credits or accepts grant monies from the state or federal agencies, they said.

Those assurances have not swayed property owners opposed to the listing.

Property owners in Southold and members of the Southold Town Board have been even more skeptical of the designation — and angry that the Southold portion of the proposed district was added by the state after Riverhead’s application was filed. They complained that they did not get enough notice of the application and did not have sufficient opportunity for input.

In September, Dinizio accused Wines and the Southold Historic Preservation Commission with hiding “certain facts” from property owners within the proposed district. “They all knew that the Southold homeowners in the district would not qualify for tax incentives unless they wanted to put a business in their homes,” he said. “Bed & breakfasts, or apartments, for example.” In addition, he said, Wines, without the Southold town board’s knowledge, “placed the owners of the Southold properties in the district and sent them a letter telling them they were in the district. And if they wanted to get out they would have to contact the state and ask to be taken out,” he said.

“At first blush it didn’t seem like something that would be detrimental to the property owners,” Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said. “But now I feel we have an obligation to withdraw it, with so many Main Road property owners opposed to it.””

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Denise Civiletti
Denise is a veteran local reporter and editor, an attorney and former Riverhead Town councilwoman. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including a “writer of the year” award from the N.Y. Press Association in 2015. She is a founder, owner and co-publisher of this website.