Suffolk Planning Commission Disapproves Mattituck Inlet Yacht Store Proposal

Long Island Morning Edition

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Polls opened at 6. a.m. today in Democratic primary races across Long Island, including the closely watched First Congressional District contest between John Avlon and Nancy Goroff in Suffolk County. New York's 1st Congressional District includes the East End.

Voters can cast their ballots until 9 p.m.

Vera Chinese reports in NEWSDAY that there also are five Democratic primaries for State Senate and Assembly in Nassau and Suffolk, and two town Democratic primaries, in Riverhead and on Shelter Island.

There are no Republican primaries on Long Island this year.

Avlon, 51, of Sag Harbor is a former CNN anchor, and Goroff, 56, of Stony Brook, is a former chair of the Stony Brook University chemistry department. Both have argued they have the best chance to defeat first-term U.S. Rep. Nicholas LaLota (R-Amityville) and flip the seat, in a swing district that stretches from Huntington to Montauk, from red to blue.

Voters must cast ballots at their designated polling site. Voters may look up their voting sites at voterlookup.elections.ny.gov.

For further info Suffolk County voters may visit suffolkcountyny.gov or call 631-852-4500.

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The Suffolk County Planning Commission has disapproved of Strong’s Yacht Center’s proposal to excavate a hillside to build two roughly 50,000-square-foot yacht storage buildings alongside Mattituck Inlet. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the project is currently under coordinated review by the Southold Town Planning Board under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), and the Planning Commission’s disapproval is an advisory recommendation that can be overridden by the Southold Town Planning Board.

Members of the Commission were at odds over the application, and passed the disapproval motion in an 8-4 vote at a special meeting last Thursday.

Their action may be moot, however, as Strong’s representatives said they’d asked that morning to meet with Southold Town planners to discuss a scaled down version of their plan.

“We are open to scaling back the building size, and significantly scaling back the sand transported from the site,” Strong’s Marine President Jeff Strong told the Planning Commission at the meeting, which was called specifically to discuss this application after the Commission deemed it incomplete, seeking more information from Southold Town, at its June 5 meeting.

The project comes under scrutiny from the Suffolk County Planning Commission because it is within 500 feet of a navigable creek.

The Southold Town Planning Board next meets on Monday, July 8 at 6 p.m., at which time it can issue a findings statement and a final determination on the project.