Shops at Riverhead approved; Dick’s developer agrees to sound wall
At the insistence of residents at the adjacent Glenwood Village senior citizen community, the developers of a proposed 122,000-square-foot shopping center on the south side of Route 58 have agreed to build a sound wall to block noise from disturbing residents.
Meanwhile, on the north side of Route 58, the Planning Board on Thursday voted to approve the site plan for The Shops at Riverhead, a proposed 271,000-square-foot shopping center on the former Hazeltine property just east of Riverhead Auto Mall that will include a Costco as its anchor tenant, along with a gas fueling station affiliated with the Costco.
The applicant on the south side of Route 58, Saber Riverhead LLC of Armonk, is planning to build on 13 acres just east of Riverhead Raceway.
Proposed tenants for the shopping center include Dick’s Sporting Goods, Christmas Tree Shops store, an ALDI discount supermarket, Five Below store, Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, and Starbucks, according to Rick Decola, a representative for the applicant.
At a Planning Board work session two weeks ago, residents of Glenwood Village, which is immediately south of the proposed shopping center, expressed concerns about noise, saying they felt the applicant’s proposed landscaped berm wouldn’t be enough.
They said they already put up with noise from loading docks at the the Stop and Shop supermarket that was built a few years ago.
On Thursday, Glenwood Village manager Brian Stark addressed the Planning Board, and about six Glenwood residents were in attendance.
Mr. Stark said he was just looking after his residents.
“Remember, at the end of the day, you don’t live there, I don’t live there, but somebody’s grandmother lives there,” Mr. Stark told the applicant.
“There’s 600 homes there, we’re all in the final stages of our lives, we just want to be peaceful,” said Glenwood resident Chris Zimmermann. “We’re looking for quiet.”
Mr. Zimmermann said the trees that buffer Glenwood from Riverhead Raceway do little to block the noise.
“We’re trying to accommodate every little thing,” Mr. Decola said.
At the start of the discussion, Mr. Stark had suggested moving some of the buildings proposed in the shopping center, which Mr. Decola said would be a major undertaking. Saber Riverhead had met with Mr. Stark earlier in the week and proposed to move the loading dock from the area of the planned Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, which is close to homes.
The Planning Board and the Glenwood residents urged the applicant to instead put up a sound wall, which they eventually agreed with.
The wall would cover a 200 foot stretch on the east part of Saber’s property, where there are about four homes.
It would made of wood, like the ones on the Long Island Expressway, but nicer looking, and would be about 10 to 12 feet high, according to Charles Cuddy, the attorney for the applicant.
The Planning Board took no formal action to approve or deny the application at Thursday’s meeting.
The Saber Riverhead shopping center would be directly across the street from The Shops at Riverhead and their entrances would share a traffic signal, which would still have to be built.
The only comment on The Shops of Riverhead proposal came from Robert Hall, who lives in the Foxwood Village senior community to the north of the proposed shopping center.
He said there are a lot of deer and other animals in the woods that are slated to be cleared for the shopping center, and suggested the developer first construct a fence along Foxwood’s property before beginning clearing of the woods so the animals don’t all come on Foxwood’s property.
The Planning Board and the applicant agreed with that suggestion.
