An application to allow retail and a restaurant use in ground-floor space in a newly built office building on Main Road in Mattituck drew questions and concerns from some residents at a public hearing yesterday before the Southold Town Planning Board.
Developer Paul Pawlowski of Mattituck, who purchased the Main Road site where a prior owner in 2009 had obtained site plan approval to construct a bank building and a two-story medical office building, wants to change the ground-floor use from medical offices to a 16-seat, 1,200-square-foot restaurant and two retail shops totaling 3,500 square feet.
Pawlowski told the planning board last night that the first-floor use change is necessary to make the development “sustainable.”
“We wouldn’t rent this in a million years if it was all medical offices,” Pawlowski said.
The prior owner had begun construction of the bank building for Hudson City Savings Bank but never finished the bank building and had not even begun construction of the office building. Pawlowski purchased the property in November 2015 and finished the project.
He said during last night’s public hearing that he has “letters of intent” from a tile store and a paint store for the two retail shops. He does not yet have a prospective tenant for the proposed restaurant space, he said.
“It is not going to be a Dunkin’ Donuts,” Pawlowski said, responding to what he said is “a rumor going around” about the national chain shop coming in. “They are my tenants in Westhampton,” he said. “No one has expressed any interest in the restaurant yet,” he said.
Retail and certain restaurant uses are both allowed uses in the Hamlet Business zoning use district which applies to the site. The code excludes “formula food and take-out restaurants” from the restaurant use allowed in the HB zone.
Mary Eisenstein, president of the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association stated concerns and questions from members of the organization. She asked what the traffic impacts of the change in use would be and whether there would be “increased water use and demands on sanitation” as a result of the change.
Pawlowski said the proposed changes would have “less intense” impacts on both traffic and water use.
Medical offices consume much more water than both dry retail and “wet” restaurant uses, he said. They also result in more car trips.
“We spent a ton of money putting in the turning lane” on Main Road, Pawlowski said. “That made it a much safer place than it was a few months ago,” he said. The installation of sidewalks in front of the site also improved safety, he said.
The builder said he has already obtained approval for the change from the Suffolk County health department.
Eisenstein asked the planning board if it could hold the public hearing open, but the board declined and closed it at the conclusion of the night’s proceeding.
Pawlowksi asked the board to move forward “as expeditiously as possible” since, he said, he can’t do anything further with the project without the approval he seeks.
He said in an interview after the meeting that he has been in discussions with a prospective bank tenant but is bound by a nondisclosure agreement not to reveal its identity.
