Government

‘The Sexiest people on Long Island’ are coming to the North Fork

A screen shot from a YouTube video promoting Vineyard 48's lineup of DJ's for the summer.

Neighbors of Vineyard 48 in Cutchogue are bracing for what promises to be another year of earth-shaking bass beats, traffic headaches and drunken partygoers urinating and fooling around on their lawns.

The vineyard recently announced on its website that it will be holding an “all-new Vineyard 48 dance party” and house DJ Michael Anthony has posted a YouTube video promising a “much bigger tent” than last year for dance parties with “the sexiest people on Long Island.”

Southold’s Zoning Board of Appeals has received a special events permit application to hold two weekends’ worth of dance parties during the last two weeks in May, but the board isn’t slated to vote on those applications until next week.

Vineyard 48 managers Dale Suter and Matt McBride could not be reached for comment this week. Their neighbors were slated to share their concerns with Supervisor Scott Russell Wednesday night over what they see as a decline in their quality of life.

“This has been the source of numerous community complaints and a land use issue that the town is trying to deal with,” said Mr. Russell this week. “We have had meetings to discuss the issue and the community should know all that we are doing to address it.”

Two families who live in the Oregon Road Estates subdivision directly across Route 48 from the vineyard have been circulating a letter asking residents to sit down with the supervisor Wednesday night.

Denise and William Lademann live at the far northern end of the subdivision, about a half-mile from Vineyard 48.

“It’s very loud and it’s ridiculous,” said Ms. Lademann, who sent a letter to the editor last year comparing the scene to the Jersey Shore or the Boardy Barn, a rowdy bar in Hampton Bays. “The bass noise makes vibrations and I can hear the lyrics.”

This year town police cruisers are equipped with noise meters. Last year Southold became the last Long Island town to adopt a noise ordinance.

There are several videos on YouTube portraying the dance party scene there, including one of a fight and one in which the DJ promises a free bottle of wine to the next girl who takes her shirt off.

Ms. Lademann said she’s seen the YouTube video promoting a bigger tent next year.

“It was big enough last year. We don’t want it any bigger,” she said. “They’re using my neighbors’ bushes for restrooms, stealing from gardens and fooling around in people’s backyards. Come on, where does it stop?”

Ms. Lademann said she called town police to complain about the noise one weekend last October and was told that she’d been the fifth caller that day. After she called, the music was turned down briefly, then turned up again, she said.

The review website Yelp also includes several negative reviews from people who complained that their limo drivers insisted over their objections that they go to Vineyard 48.

“Sure enough, we walked into the Jersey Shore on crack,” said one reviewer, Jennifer L., from Bergen County, N.J. “If you call the girls pole dancing with the tent poles, falling off picnic tables because they can’t see straight and giving their guido boyfriends lap dances a great time … then by all means head over here.”

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