Housing pitched for Mattituck horse riding ring
When Steve Libretto first pitched the indoor ring as part of the Royalton facility in Mattituck last August, he told the Southold Town Planning Board that an article describing plans to build additional homes on the property was “nothing more than a pipe dream of things we would like there.”
That pipe dream may now become reality.
A housing development has been pitched for Cox Neck Road in Mattituck next to the recently approved 28,800-square-foot horse riding facility just north of Sound Avenue, according to an application submitted to the Southold Town Planning Board.
Mr. Libretto manages the roughly 37-acre property — which is the former home of Long Island Aquarium co-founder Jim Bissett. The proposal now calls for the parcel to be split into 11 roughly three-quarter-acre lots, according to the application; a fifth lot would be 12 acres.
About 15 acres of the development would be open space to fulfill town code requirements, most of it on the largest lot. Town planner Alyxandra Sabatino said the large lot could never be subdivided in the future if it were used as open space.
Without the large lot set aside, the development would be a “patchwork” of open areas, said town planning director Heather Lanza.
Due to the number of housing lots, the development would also require two properties be set aside for affordable housing. Instead of providing that, the developers have proposed either buying vacant land and giving it to the town or constructing the two affordable housing units off the property.
The board will review the proposal in further detail at another work session.
