Cutchogue Residents Fear Crystal Clear Cleaning Will Disrupt Neighborhood

The owners of Crystal Clear Cleaning Corporation want to relocate from Mattituck to Cutchogue, but the proposed move has left some Cutchogue residents “astonished.”

The Cifarelli family, owners of the window cleaning company, first applied to the Southold Town Planning Board for site plan approval this past July to renovate an existing two-story, 2,400 square-foot garage in limited business zoning at 1335 New Suffolk Road in Cutchogue. The renovation would accommodate company offices, which are currently located in hamlet business zoning at 13000 Route 25 in Mattituck.

The application includes the construction of turf-block parking area for the company’s work vans, but there are no plans to change an existing single-family dwelling on the site.

Though other businesses, such as assisted living home and Freddy’s House, a bed and breakfast, operate among residential houses located on a strip of New Suffolk Road just to the south of the , Cutchogue resident Elizabeth McGrath said she was astonished that the Planning Board would even consider approving a business like Crystal Clear in her neighborhood.

“Why would you approve something this commercial in a residential area?” she asked the board at a monthly public meeting on Monday night. “This is outrageous … every other building on the block is a residential house. My head is spinning about this.”

Lisa Cifarelli of Crystal Clear Cleaning said at the meeting that though her company has locations on the East End, California and Florida, the proposed Cutchogue office is hub for telephone calls and office work and that only eight vans will be parked at the location.

“The fact is, this is limited business zoning, and there are pockets of limited business in the neighborhood,” she said. “The road is already highly trafficked — I am actually shocked about how many cars go up and down that stretch. I don’t think my business will have much of an impact.”

Cifarelli’s attorney Patricia Moore said that the vans would leave the location between 7 and 9 a.m. and that offices hours would be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as they are currently in Mattituck.

Cutchogue resident Stacy Paetzel said at the meeting that she too did not think Crystal Clear Cleaning would be appropriate for the neighborhood on that section of New Suffolk Road.

“I’m concerned about the intensity of the use — there has not been a traffic study,” she said. “This is at the end of the day a residential neighborhood, and we’re just trying to protect it.”

The Planning Board closed the public hearing but will accept written comments for the next two weeks.