Featured Story

Approvals for Vineyard View and Tenedios Agriculture barn

Vineyard View, a proposed project to build seven buildings in Greenport containing 14 one-bedroom, 22 two-bedroom and 14 three-bedroom apartments on a 17.2-acre site on County Road 48 in Greenport, was approved unanimously Monday evening.

It was first proposed in February 2018 and has received immense support from the Southold community.

It was approved with conditions such as the owner must provide signage for bike safety as frequently as the Suffolk County Department of Public Works will allow on Route 48 between the site’s driveway and Moore’s Lane. Also, the property owner will have to purchase and install a bus shelter if it is approved by SCDPW.

Conifer Realty, LLC vice president Allen Handelman asked for permission to start clearing trees from the property once Suffolk County Health Department has approved their plans, but before he obtains building permits to avoid the eastern box turtle season.

I don’t have a problem with that. I think it’s a good project for the town,” said Planning Board chairman Donald Wilcenski.

In November, Conifer Realty and Community Development Corporation, the applicants of Vineyard View, received a $250,000 loan from Southold Town. If the owner decides to keep all of the units affordable after 50 years, the money will be considered a grant and will not have to be paid back. If the owner converts 50 percent of the units to market rate prices, then the loan will have to be repaid.

In May, New York State awarded Vineyard View $5.7 million in funding.

The Vineyard View project must maintain affordable housing for 50 years, at 50 and 60 percent of the area median income. The proposal allows for half of the units to go to market value after 50 years.

TENEDIOS

The highly contested Tenedios Agricultural Barn was finally approved by the Southold Town Planning Board Monday night.

The applicants have proposed a 8,664-square-foot building to house livestock and store feed, supplies and farm equipment on 34.5 acres of farmland owned by Fresh & Co. adjacent to Narrow River Road in Orient.

At several public hearings, residents have expressed serious concerns over environmental issues due to the close proximity of the proposed structure to wetlands.

Citing many of the same concerns, Orient residents gathered for a public hearing for another one of the Tenedios’ site plans Monday evening. Steven Tenedios proposed a 1,440-square-foot greenhouse to house animals and some equipment during the cold months. Once the larger barn is built, the greenhouse would be used for growing plants.

During previous work sessions, representative Patricia Moore said that Mr. Tenedios had lost animals last winter because they did not expect the application for the first barn to take nearly two years to be approved.

“There’s not a real consistency on the part of the applicant to the rules and guidelines that are in place,” said Clifford Cohen of Orient. “It’s surprising to see that on almost every count, there are ways to try and get around the rules and regulations.”

Town Code Enforcement issued three separate stop work orders last month when the applicant began construction of the greenhouse without DEC or building permits. The planning board refused to lift a stop work order last month because they cannot do anything until DEC permits have been issued.

Helen Hook of Orient said that she does not believe the Tenedios will follow best agricultural practices and that she sees animals in the wetlands that could potentially harm them.

“Property values are going to go down if you can’t swim at Potato Dock, if you can’t go shellfishing, if the Orient Bay suddenly has coliform in it,” she said.

The applicant is currently going through Southold Town Justice Court for violations to the town code and face up to $5,000 per charge, according to town attorney Bill Duffy.

The public hearing for the Tenedios Greenhouse was closed Monday night.