The developer seeking to build a private sports and fitness facility on a 21-acre parcel on Route 25 in Mattituck has withdrawn his application.
“We just feel it’s a battle we can’t win,” developer Paul Pawlowski said in an interview this morning. “I feel I have no choice but to withdraw the application,” Pawlowski said. “You can’t get a project like Sports East accomplished without the support of the Planning Board.”
Faced with the prospect of an expensive, extended environmental review process that he has come to believe would not conclude with the approvals he seeks, Pawlowski pulled the plug on the Sports East plan yesterday during the Southold Town Planning Board meeting. His attorney, Charles Cuddy, formally withdrew the application during the board’s regular public meeting after Pawlowski heard from planners in the work session immediately preceding the meeting that an environmental impact statement would be required for his proposal.
Pawlowski said he has already spent more than $100,000 on plans and reports in connection with his application and did not want to invest another $100,000 to complete an environmental impact statement.
“For us to continue down this path of spending money…with all the unknowns…It just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“The decision to require an EIS, at this late stage, is just mind-boggling,” Pawlowski said. He said the Planning Board could have and should have made that determination prior to an applicant spending money on detailed site plans.
This is the third proposal for the wooded acreage Pawlowski and his partners have made and withdrawn. Last fall, the developer withdrew a prior application for the same site, a mixed-use affordable housing project — which required a change of zone — after the plan met with community resistance. His previous proposal for an affordable housing rental complex was also withdrawn.
This time around, Pawlowski’s proposal for an indoor sports facility with an outdoor multipurpose turf field and tennis courts drew widespread community support during hearings before both the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals. Neighboring residents raised objections surrounding the propriety of the proposed use under the code, traffic and groundwater impacts.
The application required a special exception from the ZBA to construct an “annual membership club” in a residential zone. It was referred by the ZBA to the Planning Board for environmental review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The planning department’s initial staff review of the application found the proposal to be consistent with the zoning code and comprehensive plan.
But in an unexpected twist in May, the Planning Board bounced the application back to the ZBA for a code interpretation, asking the ZBA to rule on whether the uses and activities indicated by the applicant during the review process to date meet the definition of “annual membership club” or that of a “recreational facility” or “commercial recreational facility” under the town zoning code.
That question, after five months of review by town officials, left Pawlowski “dumbfounded.”
In his May 31 memorandum to ZBA Chairwoman Leslie Weisman, Planning Board Chairman Donald Wilcenski said the Planning Board, “concerned about tournaments or special events that bring in a lot of nonmembers…for example a soccer tournament … or regional tennis tournament,” questioned if such activities would take the use of the site out of the realm of what the code means by “annual membership club.”
Wilcenski also questioned whether allowing less than full-year memberships should be allowed under the “annual membership club” special exception.
He also mentioned concerns raised by “several people” about “how the club would work,” including whether a day care or childcare was allowed.”
Pawlowski has repeatedly maintained that there would be no tournaments of any kind held at the facility. In comments during meetings he and partner Joe Slovak did make statements about providing before-school and after-school programs for kids.
In a letter to Wilcenski dated June 1, Pawlowski’s lawyer called the Planning Board chairman’s letter “entirely negative” and said it “relies on unsupported speculation by a handful of opponents.”
“For the record and as stated by the applicant, this is an annual membership club; …no day care is offered; no outside teams are to be allowed,” Cuddy wrote.
“What caused this memorandum to be written is of great concern to the applicant. It undermines the application before the Zoning Board and whether acknowledged or not, it is a veiled attempt to influence another Board’s proceedings and deliberation,” Cuddy wrote. He demanded that the board continue with its SEQRA review and determination.
Planning Department staff yesterday recommended to the board that a positive declaration be issued, citing potential traffic, groundwater, surface water, noise, aesthetics and habitat impacts, as well as impacts on “community character.” If the board adopts a positive declaration of significance under SEQRA, the applicant is required to prepare an environmental impact statement. The ensuing review process could take years.
Pawlowski and partners Steve Marsh and Joe Slovak proposed a “state-of-the-art” fitness facility, indoor pool and running track,indoor and outdoor turf fields and tennis courts, and multipurpose rooms that could be used for fitness and yoga classes.
Pawlowski said he was shocked by yesterday’s development. He said he believed with all his heart that the facility is sorely needed in Southold Town.
“We mitigated every single [environmental] factor and concern,” he said.
The project would preserve 70 percent of the site, Pawlowski said. It would use any advanced wastewater treatment system the county would approve, he said. The plan was well within zoning size, height, setbacks, parking, drainage and landscaping requirements and met DOT safety regulations, he said. Proposed septic flow would be 30 percent of what is allowed.
What’s next for the site? Pawlowski said he doesn’t yet know.
“I will speak with my partners and then decide,” he said. “It’s so fresh. We don’t know. We have rights to develop the property and we will pursue those rights.”
