Listen to this articleA group of current and former elected officials, environmentalists, civic leaders and farming advocates from the North Fork of Long Island have formed a panel focused on preserving land on the East End.
Spearheaded by the Greater Jamesport Civic Association, the Blue Ribbon Panel for Preservation is described as “a volunteer group of professionals with experience and knowledge in land preservation, the environment and ecology, and regional government, who have committed to work together to address land use and preservation concerns, with a particular focus on farmland, shoreline and open spaces in Riverhead Town,” according to a statement from the civic association.
The creation of the panel comes on the heels of a recently scuttled zoning change from the Town of Riverhead’s proposed Comprehensive Plan Update that would have allowed hospitality development on North Fork farmland. The proposed change to the town’s zoning code would have created a specially permitted use, Agritourism, Inns and Resorts in the RA80 Zoning Use District, allowing for development of resorts and inns on a minimum of 100-acre parcels of land north of Sound Avenue. It would have required that 70 percent of the land be preserved for agricultural use, and no more than 30 percent used for hospitality development that would not be visible from Sound Avenue.
The mission of the new panel, most of whose members opposed the agritourism zoning proposal, is to recommend ideas to Riverhead, and potentially other East End, towns to further preservation of farmland, shoreline and open space, while recognizing municipal fiscal constraints, according to the statement. One of the reasons the panel was established is to respond to requests from Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard for the public to present new ideas for land preservation.
The members of the panel include Hubbard; Robert DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End; Riverhead Councilmember Denise Merrifield; Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski; Kevin McDonald, conservation project director at The Nature Conservancy; Kevin McAllister, founder and president of Defend H2O; Juan Micieli-Martinez, president of Long Farm Bureau; Janice Scherer, planning and development administrator at Town of Southampton; Phil Schmitt, owner of Schmitt Family Farm; Laura Jens-Smith, president of Greater Jamesport Civic Association; Suffolk County Legis. Catherine Stark; and Julie Wesnofske, senior project manager at Peconic Land Trust.