Two resolutions on the Riverhead Town Board's agenda Tuesday afternoon do not approve anything, do not permit anything, and will not produce a single building. They are the most consequential items on the sheet.

Resolutions 2026-747 and 2026-748 begin the environmental review of a plan to create a new zoning district for golf courses in the Town of Riverhead, rezone six existing courses into it, and write into the town code a definition of a thing that does not currently exist there: the golf cottage.

The second of those resolutions opens a 21-day window for written public comment. It closes at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25.

The six pieces of the proposal

The Planning Department has drafted a package of amendments to Chapter 301 of the town code, described in the resolutions as implementing recommendations of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update. There are six parts.

Create a new zoning use district called the Golf Course, or GC, district. Amend the official zoning map to rezone six existing golf courses into it. Amend section 301-3 to add a definition of "golf cottage" and to change the existing definition of "standard golf course." Amend section 301-208 to make the new GC district a receiving area for transfers of development rights. Amend the same section to set a redemption formula for those transfers, tied to the size of the cottages. And amend Attachment 2 of Chapter 301, the residence districts schedule of dimensional regulations, to add dimensions for the new district.

Strip out the section numbers and the proposal reads like this: build a legal category for small residential buildings on golf courses, and pay for the right to build them with development rights bought from somewhere else in town.

Why this one gets a full environmental review

Most zoning amendments do not get a generic environmental impact statement. This one has no choice.

The resolution classifies the action as a Type 1 action under state regulations, because it changes the allowable uses within a zoning district affecting 25 or more acres. And New York Town Law section 261-A(2)(a) requires a generic environmental impact statement in order to establish a new transfer of development rights receiving district. That statute is not optional and it is not discretionary.

The Town Board also assumes lead agency status for the review. The resolution notes that no other involved agencies were identified, and where there is only one involved agency, coordinated review is not required and that agency must take on lead agency responsibilities. So Riverhead is reviewing Riverhead.

The board then issues a positive declaration, which is the formal finding that the action may have significant environmental impact and requires a draft generic environmental impact statement. That is a heavier lift than the negative declarations that carry most town actions through, and it means the analysis will be public before anything is adopted.

What the draft scope says will be studied

The draft scope, dated July 2026, names three impact areas.

Groundwater. The statement will identify every parcel targeted for rezoning, with its size and its location within a Suffolk County Groundwater Management Zone, and will run a hypothetical buildout of each one showing allowable sanitary density. It will also model a full buildout scenario in which every affected parcel develops golf cottages to the maximum extent the proposed rules would permit. That last piece is the one to read when it lands. A full-buildout number is the honest answer to the question of what a zoning change actually authorizes, as opposed to what anyone currently intends.

Transportation. The statement will use traffic data from the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update and discuss the anticipated traffic increase under that same theoretical full buildout.

Aesthetic resources. The statement will describe the character of the areas around the rezoned parcels, and names one in particular: the Sound Avenue Scenic and Historic Corridor. Sound Avenue is the road that still looks like the North Fork people say they want to protect, and it is not an accident that the scope calls it out by name.

The scope also notes that while the actions are limited in scope and in the number of parcels affected, and would not in and of themselves be expected to result in significant negative environmental impacts, the statement is required by statute regardless. That is the town saying, in advance, that it does not expect to find much. The comment period exists partly to test that expectation.

How to comment, and what a scoping comment is for

Written comments on the draft scope go to Gregory Bergman, Senior Planner, by email at [email protected], or by mail at 4 West Second Street, Riverhead, NY 11901. Questions can go to the same office at 631-727-3200, extension 264. The deadline is 4:30 p.m. on August 25.

The draft scope itself is to be made available on the town's website under the Planning Department page, at the Office of the Town Clerk, and at the Planning Department.

It is worth being clear about what this window is and is not. A scoping comment does not argue for or against golf cottages. It argues about what the environmental study has to look at. If you think the analysis should cover something the scope leaves out, this is the only moment the law gives you to say so, and a topic that misses the scope is a topic the final document is not obliged to address.

Scoping requires an opportunity for public participation under state regulation 617.8(d). A lead agency can satisfy that with a written comment period, with meetings, or with an exchange of materials. Riverhead has chosen the written period, which means there is no hearing on this, no night to show up, and no room to be heard in. There is an inbox and a date.

The part nobody has published yet

The resolutions and the scope both refer to six existing golf courses being rezoned. Neither document names them, and the list of which six is the single most useful piece of information for anyone who lives near one.

The draft generic environmental impact statement, when it is prepared, will identify the parcels; the scope commits to that twice. Until then, the parcel list lives with the Planning Department, and the phone number above is how you ask for it.

Three weeks is not long. It runs out on a Tuesday afternoon at half past four.