Supermarket Developer Has Small Appetite for Village Plan

Developer Andrew Mendelson has waited 18 months for the Westhampton Beach Village Board to green-light his plan to build a supermarket on Old Riverhead Road. So it might puzzle locals to learn that he's not exactly jumping at the board's latest attempt to push the plan through.

On Thursday night, the board authorized Kyle Collins, the village's planner, to work up a detailed plan on how the village can go about revisiting the its 1997 master plan, which provides a vision for the village and is backed up by zoning regulations.

"The resolution the mayor and trustees authorized last night to further analyze these matters, while sounding positive on the surface, is at best, unnecessary, and at worst, disingenuous," Mendelson said. "In effect, this resolution is to analyze whether they should analyze their current analysis. Time will tell if there is a true interest in this examination, or merely a mechanism whereby they simply 'kick the can down the road.'"

Mendelson's 4-acre property is currently zoned business and industrial, which does not permit for supermarkets. He contends that the village simply needs to add the words, "supermarket" and "grocery store" to the zoning code to bring his project to fruition.

"A supermarket use is consistent with the master plan as written,” he said. “No further study should be necessary.”

However, Richard Haefeli, the village attorney, said any change to the zoning code requires an analysis of the master plan.

"It is a matter of law," he said.

The village also received a report from Collins stating that Mendelson's contention that a supermarket was intended for the business district in the master plan is wrong.

At a meeting two weeks ago, he told board members that he re-examined the master plan and a supermarket on Old Riverhead Road would be inconsistent with the plan.

Mayor Conrad Teller said the next report should be available by August and the latest move by the village is by no means a device to stall Mendelson's project.

Deputy Supervisor Hank Tucker agreed, stating that, if anything, this is moving Mendelson's project forward and a reexamination of the master plan could be a good thing for all businesses and the village.

"Things may have changed since the last master plan was written," he said.