Questions remain about potential uses of proposed industrial subdivision
A public hearing was held last Thursday on a proposed industrial subdivision on an 8.76-acre property in Calverton.
The applicants, RGR Ventures, filed the subdivision application in July 2018 seeking to split the parcel, at the northeast corner of Middle Country and Manor roads, into four lots. One would be 141,959 square feet and the other three would be 80,000 square feet each.
Calverton resident and farmer Art Binder asked what potential uses could be built on the property.
“Are they office buildings? Are they manufacturing buildings?” he asked the Planning Board during the hearing.
The applicant, represented at the hearing by RGR principal Richard Israel, noted that the property is zoned Industrial A and no buildings are currently proposed for the site. “[Contracts] won’t go out until we have a subdivision,” he said. “But there is a lot of interest, most are very docile uses,” Mr. Israel said.
Under town code, permitted uses in Industrial A zones include warehouses, lumberyards, auto body shops, agricultural production and building trade shops.
When asked about potential uses at a Planning Board meeting in November 2018, Mr. Israel stated that some uses he envisions are not permitted under current zoning. “We think that this property may lay out very well to solve some of our car storage issues that exist for our current auto retailers along [Route] 58,” he said at the time, adding that it would be an “ideal” use since it does not require any buildings or water connections.
The change of use would be granted at the discretion of the Town Board, not the Planning Board.
Calverton resident John Yakaboski also took issue with future development. “There is significantly more traffic being brought there, especially when [Lavender by the Bay] gets opened up,” he said.
No action was taken by the Planning Board after the hearing was closed.
