Residents will have a chance to weigh in today on the controversial Heritage at Cutchogue, a proposed senior housing project that has sparked some heated opposition from residents.
Tonight’s Southold Town planning board meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, includes a public hearing on the issue.
The proposed residential site plan is for the development of 124 detached and attached dwellings, a 6,188 foot community center with an outdoor swimming pool and one tennis court, 284 parking spaces — of which 256 are associated with the residential units and 28, with the community center, on a vacant 46.17 foot parcel in the hamlet density zoning district. The property is located at 75 Schoolhouse Road, on the northwest corner of Griffing Street and Schoolhouse Road, approximately 1,079 feet north of Main Road in Cutchogue.
The proposal has sparked some public pushback, with residents crying out about the density of the project and the potential impacts to the quality of life in the hamlet.
In April, the planning board sent the plans were sent back for revisions.
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 have rallied in protest for years.
“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.
