Opposition to allowing agri-tourism resorts in Riverhead was caused by misinformation spread by local civic groups, Council Member Ken Rothwell said in an interview last week.
The councilman, who said he still supports the idea of allowing resorts on residential and agricultural lands north of Sound Avenue, voted with the rest of the Town Board earlier this month to adopt the town’s new comprehensive plan — which will guide the town’s future development — without recommending the resorts. He said the resorts would bring much needed tax revenues into the town and preserve farmland, arguments he and other board members have used to advocate for the legislation in the face of heavy public backlash.
Despite agri-tourism resorts being taken out of the new comprehensive plan, Alfred Weissman Real Estate, a Westchester-based developer looking to develop a resort next to the Willow Ponds condo complex on Sound Avenue, still hopes to convince town civic groups of the benefits of such a project…