Baysiders have organized a petition in opposition to the planned convenience store and apartment building on Bluff Road. We believe a store and apartment building are fundamentally inconsistent with what we love about Bayside--and would cause more traffic and safety issues. Please sign the petition if you agree. 

Petition in Opposition to Proposed Bluff Road Convenience Store and Apartment Building

To the Planning Board for the Town of Northport:

The below signatories and property owners within the geographic limits of the Northport Village Corporation write in opposition to the pending application for site review for the development of an apartment building and convenience store at 413 Bluff Road, Northport.

First, we ask that the consideration of the application be postponed. This item is on the agenda for the August 9th Planning Board Meeting, which is the same date that abutters and community members – and the applicant himself – have their Annual Meeting in Bayside.

It is not at all unusual for a site plan review to be delayed to accommodate the needs of the community and interested parties. As Northport residents, we are certain you understand the importance to all residents of the annual meeting. This is the time that the Bayside budget is approved by the
taxpayers and other important information is presented to voters. We are sure that the Chair of the Planning Board and the CEO would recognize that a fair opportunity for consideration cannot be achieved when the Bayside community must attend to their civic obligation to attend the annual meeting.

Second, there are substantial problems with the application. The most substantial of these in the context of the Site Plan Ordinance is that it dramatically understates — without any traffic study to support the statement — the traffic in and out of the proposed site.

Speed, traffic, and danger to pedestrians are chronic sources of concern and complaint in the vicinity of the proposed development. Adding a commercial enterprise will exacerbate that problem. Of particular interest and concern is the additional traffic that would come from outside the village. Since Bayside must monitor and control traffic from its limited resources expended on police coverage, the imposition that additional traffic will put on the resources of the village must be considered.

Third, the most fundamentally wrong aspect of the plan is that it is utterly inconsistent with and proposes land uses which are not permitted under the Village Zoning Ordinance. The lot is located in the R-1 District. Only single-family residences may be built in R-1. This Application proposes a multi- family dwelling building. It also proposes a convenience store. A convenience store is allowed only as a conditional use in R-1.

Only the Zoning Board of Appeals may approve a conditional use such as a convenience store. The ZBA would be required to determine, among other things, that the proposed use is consistent with the uses of adjacent properties. This application if allowed would be utterly inconsistent with the bucolic surroundings, which include a memorial park, large swaths of treed land, and small single-family residences. The proposal anticipates a mixed use. The community supports no such uses in its ordinances and existing land uses. Allowing this site plan application would radically alter the area and would be directly at odds with the requirements of the Zoning Ordinance.

In short, this hurried application does not advance the interests of the community as expressed in its zoning ordinance and would serve to utterly alter the surrounding area without due consideration and comment. We ask that the consideration of this application be postponed and then the application be denied.