Plans for Heritage at Cutchogue 2015 were sent back for revisions by the Southold planning board this week.
At this week’s planning board work session, representatives for developer Jeffrey Rimland, including attorney John Wegner, said the new plans had some changes, including moving the community center and the removal of some closures for loop road configurations; the plan was almost verbatim to the original concept plan, they said, adding that the new design addressed traffic calming. Also, they said, not having two pockets of open space helped to make for more contiguous open space in the plan.
Roads were also widened a foot and a half, with an eye toward safety for emergency vehicles such as firetrucks, Wegner said.
In addition, although initially a clustered septic system was considered, in the end, the determination by consultants was that the idea was not as efficient as spreading out systems on raised leaching pools, a better design, representatives for Rimland said.
All said they believed the plan was consistent with the conceptual design.
In addition, the plan presented “respected” the parameters of 50.18 percent of open space set forth, Wegner said.
Planning board member James Rich said there were “some substantial differences to what we thought we were agreeing to,” adding that there was no parking in an area already discussed and stating that he felt the loops in the roadways onsite were important to the plan.
While reps for Rimland said they did not think the parking lot would benefit the overall plan, they said there was still guest parking closer to the center of the proposed clubhouse and tennis courts; they added they’d be happy to add the parking back in.
Rich added that the loops were important for emergency vehicles.
“There’s enough deviation from the original plan that we’re not happy with it,” said Rich.
Planner Mark Terry said the problem is that the plan initially put on the table was approved by both the town board and planning board and showed the traffic calming loops, as well as a parking lot for the community center. “Many of the elements we tried hard to implement” were missing from the latest rendering, he said; the newest plan lacked a trail system and sidewalks, he said.
“Concept plans should have some weight in the process,” Terry said.
The board asked the applicant to come back with a revised plan at a future meeting.
In February after years of public outrage over a proposed senior housing project that has opponents fearful that their bucolic quality of life could be forever altered, the planning board also discussed the Heritage at Cutchogue 2015 at a previous work session.
Plans for the residential site plan, located at 75 Schoolhouse Road, on the northwest corner of Griffing Street and School House Lane, approximately 1,079 feet north of the Main Road in Cutchogue, include the creation of 130 detached and non-detached dwellings, with 40 “Type A” units of 1,999 square feet of livable area, and 90 “Type B” units of 1,599 square feet of livable area. Also proposed for the 46.17 acre parcel is a 6,190 square foot community center, an outdoor swimming pool, two tennis courts, a putting green, 296 parking spaces — with 260 for the dwelling units and 36 for the community center, as well as other site improvements.
The land, once zoned for agricultural use, is now zoned hamlet density.
Controversy over the plan has raged for over 30 years. In July of 1983, the planning board asked for an environmental review of the project and in 1985, denied a site plan application. Property owners commenced litigation and lost.
The most recent round of litigation commenced again in 2009 over zoning when property owners Nocro, LTC sued the town over zoning changes; currently the town has embarked upon the environmental review process.
According to Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, the property was zoned hamlet density in June of 1983, allowing for four homes to an acre.
Because there is a lot yield requirement, or land needed for roads and drainage, the usual amount of homes would actually be less than the four per acre but “still significant”, Russell said.
Currently, litigation is still before the court, Russell said. “It is important to note that both sides agreed to hold the case and put it to the side so the application can be made to the planning board,” Russell said. “We did not ‘settle’ the litigation.”
Russell said when he and now-Suffolk County Legislator and former town board member Al Krupski took office, “We realized that such a proposal would have substantial impacts to the surrounding community. We made amendments to the code which were not originally required.”
The amendments require that at least 50 percent of the land be held out for open space, and the total buildout for residences on the site was limited so that to comply, a developer would either need to build less larger units or have to build more smaller units.
“We expanded the required setbacks from the neighboring properties and required the clustering of structures to reduce impacts on the land to reduce the amount needed to be disturbed by development,” Russell said. “We made some pretty substantial changes to substantially reduce the impacts of such projects. It is our expectation that any application will reflect the intent of those changes.”
Prior to the amendments, Russell said, a developer could build 165 units with no limit in size and only modest setbacks from neighboring properties. The previous code also allowed for the homes to be built separately rather than attached. The previous code would have permitted what would look like 165 houses spread out across the whole site with no clustering or open space . The new code guarantees at least half of the site would be preserved.
“On that specific application there was no age restriction, however, we insisted on it being a 55 and over community and the developer agreed,” he said.
Opponents of the plan are still galvanizing in protest.
“Due to the massive size of the development compared to Cutchogue hamlet and the certainty of serious adverse impacts on our natural environment and community we can not afford less than a full hard look at the proposed development of farmland as condominiums,” said resident Benja Schwartz.
At the previous work session, Wegner and Rimland outlined the new plan. The planning board set forth a number of requirements, including that no more than 130 units could be built, all condominiums.
