Riverhead approves comprehensive plan without agritourism component

Riverhead’s newly adopted comprehensive plan will move ahead without allowing for agritourism resorts on Sound Avenue, a change made official Wednesday and applauded by residents and town leaders alike.

Town officials announced the eleventh-hour change Tuesday in response to fierce public outcry over the proposal, which would have allowed resorts of up to 150 rooms on properties larger than 100 acres if 70% of the land was preserved for farming.

Before the announcement late Tuesday afternoon, the town board was expected Wednesday to approve the plan at its regularly scheduled meeting, agritourism resorts included.

Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said the decision to strike the proposal from the plan was made Tuesday by a "majority" board decision. At the Wednesday meeting, the board approved the plan in a 5-0 vote without the agritourism component.

"I’ve been against this for a very long time, and it was just a matter of trying to get the rest of the board members to see it the same way," Hubbard said in an interview before the meeting.

A forum on agritourism resorts planned for Sept. 18 has been canceled, Hubbard said. 

The USDA defines agritourism as "a form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or business owner."

The decision to strike agritourism from the final plan comes after civic leaders mobilized against the proposal, writing letters and collecting more than 2,700 signatures in an online petition.

"I'm pleased that the board finally listened and came to its senses and realized that this is not what residents want and it's not what's best for Riverhead," said Joan Cear, 66, of Jamesport, who organized the petition.

Residents packed Wednesday's town board meeting to reiterate those concerns. Frederick Terry, 80, of Riverhead, praised the plan overall but blasted the agritourism proposal as being "misguided."

"I do not know how ... we got blindsided by somebody who decided to include agritourism on the north side of the last pristine, bucolic country road," Terry said.

The plan, a 200-page document to guide future zoning decisions, initially included a recommendation to rezone residential areas north of Sound Avenue to allow agritourism resorts by special permit. It generated criticism from farmers over restrictions it would have put on such properties and debates over traffic, development and the rural character of the area.

Those portions were removed from the final version before the board approved it Wednesday.

Councilman Ken Rothwell, who sponsored the agritourism proposal, ultimately voted to support the plan, but defended the idea as a tool that could have injected tax revenue into the town.

"For every parcel of land we preserve, it comes off the tax rolls," he said. "And we as the remaining residents have to make up for it."

Civic leaders had planned and later canceled a news conference planned ahead of Wednesday's meeting to voice their opposition to agritourism, with Southold Supervisor Al Krupski set to speak.

In an interview Wednesday, Krupski applauded the change. "When Riverhead does something, it affects Southold," he said, adding that hotels should not be built on farms. "I don’t think they’re compatible at all," Krupski said.

Westchester-based Alfred Weissman Real Estate had sought to build a 100-room luxury farm-to-table resort on Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

Company officials said after the meeting that the decision was "unfortunate" and that their project would have resulted in a stronger tax base and less dense development than homes currently allowed there.

"The reason we liked this project was exactly what everyone was talking about, the historic corridor, the beautiful vistas. Why would we come in to change it?" said Joseph Genzano, president and general counsel for the company, who remains optimistic.

"I don’t view this necessarily as the end," Genzano said.

Riverhead spent more than $780,000 on the plan, which was last updated in 2003. 

Hubbard said he wants to form a task force to find a "happy medium" for farmland preservation and economic development.

"Other ways of trying to preserve farmland," the supervisor said, "without giving up to developers or big projects like spas and resorts."