A proposed sports and fitness facility in Mattituck complies with the Southold comprehensive plan according to an initial planning department analysis, but the project’s potential for adverse environmental impacts must be analyzed, town planning director Heather Lanza told members of the planning board at its work session Monday afternoon.
The planning board is sending its comments on the application to the Southold Zoning Board of Appeals, from which Sport East must obtain a special exception use permit. The planning board will advise the ZBA that it would like to assume lead agency status for the purposes of State Environmental Quality Review analysis.
The planning board is responsible for determining if the proposed project complies with the comprehensive plan.
“Upon initial review, it looks like this proposal is consistent with the comp plan,” Lanza told planners.
Sports East, proposed for a 21-acre site on Main Road in Mattituck, would include an indoor pool along with indoor tennis courts, a basketball court a fitness room, yoga studios and multipurpose areas. It would also include an outdoor soccer field and outdoor tennis courts. See prior story.
The parks and recreation chapter fo the comprehensive plan was completed a couple of years ago, the planning director said, though it has not yet been adopted by the town board. A community survey undertaken as that chapter was being written indicated that 85 percent of the people surveyed identified an indoor pool as a top priority. The plan recognized the town cannot afford to build and maintain an indoor pool, Lanza said.
The proposal complies with the current zoning of the site, Lanza said. It doesn’t require any variances. In fact it “far exceeds” the minimum requirements of the town code for site area, building area and setbacks, she said.
“It’s a large development, so the potential for adverse impacts needs to be examined. That’s what we do in SEQRA,” she said, noting that standards of review for a special exception use permit mirror the SEQRA review.
Potential traffic, noise and groundwater impacts are among those that would need analysis, Lanza said.
“This size property would fit in with the new advanced wasterwater treatment systems that are available and now permitted by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services,” Lanza told the planning board.
