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Sparkling Pointe tasting room approved for Greenport

Sparkling Pointe’s application to convert a First Street residence and convert it into a tasting room received site plan approval from the Greenport Village Planning Board Thursday, but not without a few conditions. 

Specifically, the board included a provision where limos and buses would need to make an appointment to drop off or pick up people at the tasting room, which would be located at 411 First Street.

Sparkling Pointe, which has a vineyard and tasting room on Route 48 in Southold, already has a notice on its website saying “reservations are required for buses, limos, and groups of 6 or more.”

Board member Walter Foote suggested setting up a designated area “outside the village,” where buses and limos could wait, although that wasn’t a part of the conditions agreed upon.

The village had received complaints from Broad Street residents about buses that had dropped people off at other sites in the village later idling on that street. Officials said idling is already prohibited by state law.

Another condition approved last Thursday requires Sparkling Pointe to plant arborvitae that are at least six feet tall to begin with, as a buffer for the neighboring property.

David Murray, a local builder who has represented the project during the application process, had suggested an arborvitae buffer at an earlier public hearing on the proposal.

“This is an illustration of the kind of problem we are running into with legitimate commercial ventures getting closer to residential areas and parking there,” Planning Board member Ben Burns said, adding that he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The building is used residentially now, but it is located in a commercial/retail zone, and the wine tasting room is a permitted use and does not require any zoning variances, according to Village Administrator Paul Pallas.

The tasting room, which would serve Sparkling Pointe’s array of sparkling wines, would be located on the ground floor of the two-story building.

Sparkling Pointe had also indicated at a public hearing that it would rent the upstairs apartment on the building year-round, rather than having a short-term rental. Mr. Murray, a former village trustee, had said that is required by the village code.

Caption: The First Street residence that will soon be a second tasting room for Sparkling Pointe Vineyards. (Credit: Tim Gannon)