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Proposed Mattituck housing development back before Planning Board


The proposal to build a group of residential homes in Mattituck, known as the Koehler Family Limited Partnership, was brought before the Planning Board again.

At a public hearing in 2015, dozens of residents rejected the proposal, saying that this would disrupt their community and harm the environment.

The 15-acre property, located on New Suffolk Avenue and Marratooka Road, is currently the site of a single-family home. The owner, represented by Thomas McCarthy, wishes to subdivide the land into seven lots with a road constructed at about half an acre.

In August 2017, the Planning Board granted conditional preliminary plat approval, according to staff reports.

The applicant has provided a schematic drawing of potential locations for agricultural structures and retail farm stands.

“We’d like to have the provision that whoever’s going to be using this land, if they look to retail something off of it, have a spot to do that and we’re planning for it now,” Mr. McCarthy said.

Assistant Town Planning Director Mark Terry said that the farm stands are speculative at this point because they don’t know what kind of goods would be produced on the farm.

Southold Town code requires the applicant to provide one affordable housing unit. A previous version of the plan indicated that the affordable home would be located elsewhere in town, but that is considered ineligible.

The applicant has told the board that a donation of property will be offered to the Town of Southold Housing Fund, North Fork Housing Alliance, Community Land Trust or a similar organization for the sole purpose of developing affordable housing; however, sufficient details were not provided regarding the location so the Planning Board cannot determine if the property is acceptable.

The final plat application was found incomplete, pending information on the affordable housing requirement, along with several other outstanding items.

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Photo caption: The Southold Planning Board discussed the application on Monday evening. (Rachel Siford photo)