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Recap: Town Board tables vote to reject farm-clearing permit

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Update: The Town Board has tabled a resolution that would have rejected a mining permit for Driftwood Family Farms in Calverton.

Click the blog box at the bottom of this post to follow along.

ORIGINAL POST: The Riverhead Town Board is meeting today, Wednesday, at 2 p.m. instead of its usual Tuesday due to the Labor Day holiday weekend.

As first reported last week, the board is expected to deny a controversial excavating permit application for Driftwood Family Farms, whose owners have been seeking permission to excavate more than 415,000 cubic yards of material from a 42-acre farm in Calverton.

The board discussed the resolution briefly at its work session last Thursday when reviewing resolutions for today’s meeting.

The board appeared to have at least three votes to deny the application, with officials fearing it could set a precedent, given the millions of dollars that can be fetched from selling sand.

BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Mattituck Laundry at 1044 Parkway Street in Riverhead.
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Mattituck Laundry at 1044 Parkway Street in Riverhead.

Board members are expected to approve a clearing permit for an expansion of the Riverhead Charter School in Calverton.

Work is expected to begin soon on a new two-story building at the Riverhead Charter School that will replace the portable classrooms the school has been using since 2002. The permit will allow contractors to export 4,075 cubic yards of soil from the school property.

There is also a public hearing scheduled on whether to expand the Riverhead Sewer District to accomodate Mattituck Laundry with sewer connections at 1044 Parkway Street in Riverhead.

News-Review staff writer Tim Gannon will be reporting live from today’s meeting.

See below for a full agenda. Click below that to follow along.

 

September 4, 2013 – Agenda