A plan to require public hearings on site plan applications had a second public hearing itself last night before the Riverhead Town Board.
The overhaul of section 108-131 of the town code had its first public airing on Sept. 7, after which the board agreed to send the proposal back to the code committee for tweaking, taking into account comments offered at the hearing.
The revised proposal, still a total rewrite of the existing site plan review provisions contained in section 108-131, sets forth new site plan application procedures, requires a presubmission conference between the applicant and the planning department, requires the planning department to make a determination of complete application within 10 days of receipt, and requires a public hearing on the application. The applicant would be required to give written notice to adjacent property owners, but the draft aired last night limits the scope of the required mailed notification to property owners to those within 200 feet of the borders of the site subject to the public hearing. (The previous draft required notification to property owners within 500 feet.)
The revised proposal also replaced "Planning Board" with "the appropriate reviewing board" throughout the draft.
It did not place time constraints on action by that reviewing board following the public hearing, something attorney Peter Danowski had requested at the Sept. 7 hearing.
Danowski, who has represented numerous developers on site plan applications in the town, reiterated his request last night. He argues that the code should contain an automatic approval if the reviewing board fails to act within a specified period of time.
"You need a time frame to deliver in writing to the applicant the reasons why you don't find it acceptable," Danowski said. "And if not, it should be deemed approved."
As they had on Sept. 7, representatives of civic groups, who had requested the proposed mandatory public hearing on site plans, spoke in favor of the concept.
Dominique Mendez of the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, an outspoken critic of the planning board's refusal to hold public hearings on site plan applications, opposed the automatic approval suggested by Danowski.
Mendez also made another pitch for making the public hearing requirement applicable to all pending site plan applications, rather than site plan submitted after the effective date of the new code.
Jamesport winery owner Sal Diliberto spoke in opposition to a public hearing requirement for site plans. If a use conforms to the code, Diliberto said, the application should be processed administratively. Citing private property rights, Diliberto said it's "wrong to give people too much input" where a use is permitted by the code. It will just delay development and cost businesses more money, he said.
Wading River Civic President Sid Bail and Group for the East End representative Jen Hartnagel both said other towns require public hearings on site plans.
"This is not a pie in the sky idea," Hartnagel said. "Other East End towns have had this for years."