ZBA: Ackermann agricultural barn is not a permitted use
The Southold Town Zoning Board of Appeals ruled Thursday that a controversial plan to build a storage barn on a property in Cutchogue where the development rights have been sold would not be an allowable use.
The applicant, North Fork Viticultural Services, was proposing to build the 8,162 square-foot storage barn at a property on Alvah’s Lane. The equipment stored there would also be used to maintain more than 20 agricultural properties elsewhere, the applicant has said.
The ZBA ultimately ruled that building the barn to store equipment for use on other properties is not permissible.
“The use as proposed by NVFS to erect a barn for storage of equipment used in a business wherein NFVS manages vineyards unrelated to the agricultural operation on the subject property is not an allowed use or accessory use,” ZBA chair Leslie Kanes Weisman said in reading the decision Thursday morning.
The Planning Board had requested the ZBA interpret whether agricultural equipment storage for a vineyard management operation is a permitted agricultural storage use on land for which the town owns development rights.
The proposed NFVS project calls for an 8,162 square-foot storage barn, which includes an attic space on the 22-acre property, which includes eight acres of grapevines and three fields under development as cattle pasture, according to the applicant.
The ZBA found the “limited” issue at hand was whether the proposed barn is a commercial use or contractor’s yard as opposed to an agricultural use on land in the A-C zoning district. The board found it had jurisdiction only under the town’s zoning code to make the determination and noted development rights are not within that authority.
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