Sports East packed the town hall meeting room again last night, this time for a Southold Planning Board public hearing on the project’s proposed site plan.
But much of the public comment offered to planners during the nearly two-hour hearing last night — on both sides of the issue — was not confined to the specifics of the site plan.
Opponents and supporters of the plan alike spoke at length about a host of topics related to the proposal — if not the site plan — among them: the need for such a facility on the North Fork, its viability as a business and whether the trio of developers actually have another plan they’re not yet disclosing. They talked about preserving the 21-acre wooded site or rezoning it. And they debated whether the facility would actually have a positive impact on preventing high-risk behavior among the community’s youth.
Charles Cuddy, attorney for the applicant, remarked on the relevance of the testimony to the subject of the hearing. “I’m disturbed to hear people really commenting on the special permit aspects because this is a site plan hearing,” he said. “Mr. Pawlowski correctly said to you he’s got a site plan that meets all the requirements. It has a great buffer area. It has adequate parking. It has a setback that’s phenomenally big.”
Sports East will need to gain approval of a special exception use from the zoning board of appeals in order to build the 82,500-square-foot indoor sports facility on the Main Road, Mattituck site, which is zoned residential R-80. A membership-only athletic club is allowed as a special exception use in that zoning district. The ZBA convened a hearing on the special exception application Feb. 4, but adjourned the hearing pending review by the planning board, which, in addition to its site plan authority, has declared lead agency status for purposes of coordinated review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The planning board must determine whether the proposal complies with the town’s comprehensive plan and it may direct an environmental impact study to determine how potential adverse impacts may be mitigated.
Pawlowski’s proposed site plan conforms to all minimum setbacks, lot coverage and parking requirements of the zoning code, according to Southold planners. It requires no variances or change of zone. Planning department staff have also preliminarily determined that the proposal complies with the comprehensive plan.
Last night’s site plan hearing will also help inform the planners’ environmental review process, town attorney William Duffy said.
Traffic impacts of the project were among the concerns voiced again last night by local residents.
Sigsbee Road resident Denise Geiss criticized the traffic study submitted by the applicant and asked the planning board to require a study done during the summer months.
Geiss also noted that Suffolk County Community College is building an athletic facility on its eastern campus, which she said eliminates the need for the Sports East facility.
Julie Amper of Mattituck called the plan “a subterfuge to create a commercial use in a residential zone following an earlier failed attempt to accomplish this through a zone change.”
Granting the special exception would be “a dangerous precedent-setting act that undermines the zoning map and threatens the integrity of past planning efforts,” Amper said. Special exceptions “make a mockery” of those efforts,” she said.
Joann Lechner of Mattituck read a long written statement outlining objections to the plan including: destruction of forested lands, traffic congestion, extended hours of operation, potentially unaffordable membership fees, duplication of services and facilities already in existence, unauthorized congregation of youth.
Joy Ellinghouse, a Sigsbee Road summer resident for many years, added to those objections. Mattituck, she said, has taken a beating like no other hamlet on the North Fork over the years. She maintained that the proposed facility may offer things some people want but they don’t “need” them.
“Can you give people what they want without breaking the back of the Main Road, without endangering more of our delicate environment or throwing so much more traffic onto a road that people are already fearful of driving on?” Ellinghouse asked.
She criticized developer Paul Pawlowski for making promises she said he knows “he can’t possibly keep” and his “constant refusal to imagine negative consequences.”
Ellinghouse also expressed concerns about wastewater disposal, which she said the Pawlowski “brushed aside.”
Jill Schroeder owner of JABS Fitness in Cutchogue said she is worried about the impact Sports East will have on her business. It is of “a magnitude bigger than this community can bear and may well destroy my business and lots of other local fitness facilities,” Schroder said. She asked the board to take that impact into account.
Supporters of the proposal spoke about the benefits the facility would bring to the community.
Eric McKenna, a Mattituck High School graduate who is now a teacher there, said Sports East “presents a unique opportunity to shape countless lives” by teaching kids important values and building important relationships. As president of the North Fork United Soccer Club, he said, he can say from experience there is not enough field space, especially in the winter. “Sports East would be a perfect solution,” he said.
McKenna’s 10-year-old son, Eric, a student at Cutchogue East Elementary School also went to the podium to ask the planning board to support the plan. “It gives everyone an opportunity to stay fit and have fun.”
Southold native Nan Schade, who said she’s lived here over 70 years, called the proposal “the best thing to happen to our town in many years.”
Janine Woods, a drug counselor, said people want to sweep the drug problem under the rug, but it is real.
Fitness trainer Frank Zagarino of Laurel referred to the “inundation of heroin” in the community. “I was shocked when both of my sons told me what is going on — how much heroin and other drugs there are here,” he said.
“Teenagers want a place to go,” Zagarino said. “They sit in their basements and it leads to doing drugs, which leads to crime.”
Zagarino, a fitness trainer for 35 years, said he specializes in senior citizens.
“So many people will benefit from access to a pool without an hour and a half drive up the island,” he said.
The planning board must now conclude the SEQRA review process before the ZBA can take up the application again.
