Ten months after clear-cutting at Costco site, frustrated residents still seek relief

It’s been a long 10 months for the Foxwood Village residents whose homes abut the Costco construction site on Route 58 in Riverhead.

Early last June, they were stunned by the clear-cutting of 41 acres of woodlands by developers of The Shops at Riverhead, a 271,000-square-foot retail center. Since then, in groups both large and small, they’ve attended planning board, zoning board and town board meetings, asking Riverhead officials for help. They’ve written letters, circulated petitions and, carrying signs and placards, picketed along Route 58.

“It’s the same thing every time. They’re going to have another meeting with the developer to discuss what needs to be done,” Foxwood resident Robert Hall, the former community association president who continues to act as an advocate for the homeowners, said Thursday afternoon, after another Riverhead Planning Board meeting.

Residents fear Riverhead officials are merely paying lip service to their demands and pleas for help, while construction of the Costco Wholesale Club nears completion.

“When they’re ready to open, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the town to issue a temporary C.O. and once that happens,” Hall’s voice trailed off and he shook his head.

Large piles of dirt and sand loom large over the six-foot wooden fence along the Foxwood Village boundary with the development site. South of the fence lies a vast, denuded landscape, dotted with construction equipment and craters where drainage structures are being installed. In the distance, in the southwest corner of the site, stands the Costco building, the largest of five buildings approved for construction on the site. The other buildings, on which construction has not yet begun, will consiste of six retail stores and a bank, according to the developer’s site plan. Costco itself appears largely completed, with contractors now working on paving the parking lot that will serve the wholesale club’s customers.

With the woods clear-cut right to the Foxwood property line, residents living in homes whose small backyard abut the development site say they can’t open their windows for all the dirt and sand blowing from the site. Noise levels from Route 58 and Riverhead Raceway have increased dramatically without the 41-acre wooded buffer. Light from the Route 58 auto dealership to the east of the development site and from the Costco site itself illuminates their yards and homes at night.

Foxwood resident Barbara Ross, whose rear windows provide a clear view of the development terrain, is, like Hall, angered by what was allowed to happen and by officials’ response to residents. The residents along the boundary line have been robbed of their privacy and quality of life, Ross said. The retired banker said her spacious three-bedroom home, which used to be surrounded by trees, has taken a major hit in value.

“You have to remember, this is a construction site still,” planning director Rick Hanley told Hall and Ross during Thursday’s planning board meeting. Hanley on more than one occasion has reminded planning board members, who’ve been grappling with screening and buffering issues since the clear-cutting last June, that it’s extremely unusual to address ultimate screening issues while a site is still under development.

The developer is obligated by the conditions of its site plan approval to install a vegetated berm and fence along its northern border which adjoins Foxwood Village, pursuant to a landscaping plan approved by the planning board. It is also obligated to provide irrigation for the berm — despite the fact that the northern 11 acres of the site is not currently slated for development. The planning board’s site plan approval granted permission to clear-cut the northern 11 acres so the developer could mine sand and materials for use to fill in low-lying areas of the 30 acres currently being developed. The bare 11 acres are required to be planted with a wildflower meadow, according to the planning board approval. The developer is supposed to install an irrigation well to irrigation of the berm, Hanley said.

The well, irrigation lines and sprinklers have yet to be installed, Hall said.

“The berm is not stable and the plantings are not what the landscape plan calls for,” he said. Ross said she and Hall walked alongside the berm and counted them. There are 202 trees on the berm along Foxwood, Ross said. The plantings themselves are not “decent specimens,” she said, like the trees planted behind Sabre Riverhead.

The fence erected by the developer last summer — which residents scornfully refer to as “the popsicle fence” — is already broken, Hall said. It is flimsy and doesn’t provide real security, he said.

The height, location and planting of the berm has been a matter of contention between the planning board and the developer. Officials say the elevations originally depicted on the developers plans were incorrect and it took a significant amount of time for the matter to be resolved.

Ross and Hall say the white pines and arborvitae were planted on the berm haphazardly and too far apart to provide any real screening. Many of the trees’ root balls are exposed. Some are standing at angles. They have not been watered and many are turning brown. Others have been damaged by hungry deer.

“It’s a pathetic. It’s more than pathetic, it’s a joke,” Hall said of the berm.

At Thursday’s planning board meeting, members discussed with staff and the board’s consulting engineer the contents of a revised planting plan submitted earlier this month. Assuming the planning board approves the new plan, Hanley said, the developer will have to complete the berm as per those specifications before a C.O. will be issued for the Costco building, which is nearing completion, Hanley said.

Planning board member Stan Carey said the developer agreed to maintain the berm over the winter and they didn’t do that. It has eroded, he said.

Ross said people have been riding quads and snowmobiles on the site, and along the berm.

Board members discussed the need to communicate with the developer regarding all outstanding items and having another meeting at the site with the project manager.

Hanley said the developers are well aware they cannot get their C.O. unless all site work is properly completed. “We’ve had a quick dialogue with Peter [Danowski, attorney for the developer],” he said.

Member Ed Densieski said that, at the last on-site meeting, “They said all the right things, they just didnt do any of them.”

“We will develop a punch list” of items that must be completed before a C.O. will be issued for the Costco building, Planning Board chairman Richard O’Dea said.

O’Dea said he wouldn’t be surprised if Costco was ready to be opened in two weeks. But planning administrator Jeff Murphree said the site has failed water pressure tests twice.

“And not minor leaks, either. I’m talking major failure,” Murphree said. The C.O. can’t be issued until the water pressure test is passed, he said.

Board members agreed to notify the developer in writing of the “punch list” of items that must be completed before a C.O. will be issued allowing Costco to open, which includes stabilizing the berm, planting it according to a revised landscape plan, erecting barriers to prevent access to the undeveloped areas of the site and landscaping along the Millbrook mobile home park east of the site.