Now more than ever, local news matters.
Now more than ever, local news matters.
The application for a variance to allow a proposed retail cannabis shop in a former bank building on Ostrander Avenue was denied by the Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals last night.
In a unanimous 4-0 vote, with member Leroy Barnes Jr. absent, the board ruled that the applicant, Tink & E. Co. of Cutchogue, failed to meet the criteria for a use variance. The board determined that the applicant “failed to prove unnecessary hardship,” which the board found was self-created.
The town’s cannabis code prohibits a retail cannabis dispensary at 1201 Ostrander Avenue because it is located within 1,000 feet of existing residential uses and is outside a designated commercial corridor. The applicant appealed the denial of its building permit application to make interior renovations, and asked the ZBA for a variance from the code’s mandatory 1,000-foot minimum setback from residential uses outside a designated commercial corridor.
A cannabis dispensary can only be located within 1,000 feet of residential uses if the dispensary site has frontage on one of five designated commercial corridors identified in the cannabis code. The 1201 Ostrander Avenue site is about 200 feet north of the Route 58 designated commercial corridor.
The applicant’s attorney, Andrew Schriever, of Purchase, New York, who specializes in representing cannabis businesses, told the board during a public hearing last month that his client was required by state law to secure a location for the dispensary by November 2023. He said his client has been leasing the long-vacant Ostrander Avenue property from its owner since that time, noting that this was “about a year and a half” before Riverhead Town adopted its zoning rules about cannabis corridors.
Riverhead’s original cannabis code was adopted Nov.1, 2022, a full year before he said his client was required to secure a site, Deputy Town Attorney Annemarie Prudenti, who serves as counsel to the ZBA, told Schriever during the hearing. The first version of the code was even more restrictive than its current form. It was amended in March 2024.
Prudenti had a major role in drafting the original code as well as its subsequent amendments.
The ZBA delayed its decision until its Feb. 13 meeting, pending the determination of its referral to the Suffolk County Planning Commission. The planning commission, as expected, notified the ZBA that the application is a matter for local determination, which allowed the board to move forward with its decision.
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