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Updated: Neighbors to Croteaux Vineyards discuss parking on north side

Croteaux Vineyards’ parking plans were met by pushback from neighboring residents at a Southold Town Planning Board public hearing Monday.

Attorney Harvey Arnoff — representing residents Matilde Busana and Bronwyn Guthrie, who own the property to the north — expressed concern with the site plan.

The new application, under review by the Planning Board, establishes 75 parking stalls on the property — 49 north of the winery and 26 spots located south of the winery at 1450 South Harbor Road.

Dan Pennessi, representing the owners and the applicant, said the application legalizes vineyard operations at the property following a resolution to settle an Article 78 petition filed in 2018 by the former owner of Croteaux Vineyards.

Mr. Arnoff said both his clients have dealt with increasing noise levels since the property reopened in August. He said his clients would prefer that no cars park on the north side of the property. He suggested the vineyard limit the parking to staff-only on the north side, then it would not interfere with the property line.

“This is a real anomaly,” he said. “This is a vineyard operating a winery in a residential area.”

Mr. Pennessi said the minimum requirements imposed by the ZBA settlement would establish a 30-foot-wide buffer that establishes a 6-foot-tall fence and 6 feet of solid evergreen screening. Mr. Pennessi said in the past, there were two parking aisles that ran along the northern boundary – one of which was located in that buffer area.

But this year, he said, Croteaux had to respect the buffer and, therefore, did not use the roughly 30 parking spaces that were historically located in the buffer area while the site plan application was being developed.

But Mr. Arnoff said the winery could easily expand on the southern part of the parcel instead of the north.

The Planning Board closed the hearing but left the written comment period open for two weeks.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the site plan under review was an expansion of parking. In addition, the number of parking stalls was incorrectly stated.

Photo caption: Attorney Harvey Arnoff speaks at Monday’s Planning Board meeting. (Credit: Kate Nalepinski)

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