Just before the season kicks in, , the owner of in Mattituck is close to implementing measures to help control parking and subsequent traffic congestion at his Sound Avenue farm stand and agritainment facility.
Southold Town Planning director Heather Lanza informed members of the during Tuesday morning work session that Ed Harbes, after working out best options with the planning board, had agreed to install “no parking” signs at certain points along Sound Avenue and open up a new parking lot to accommodate 200 cars off of Hallock Lane, a small road to the north of Sound Avenue. He will also open up a space to the north of that parking lot for overflow parking, Lanza said.
Harbes plans to convert a barn on Hallock Lane into a new wine tasting room. He is also in the process of training staff to direct cars off the roadside to the designated lots and is working with the planning board to pick out specific points on Sound Avenue for people to cross from one side of the road to the other — but without crosswalks.
“The transportation commission decided that crosswalks will give people a false sense of security,” Lanza said.
is the only business on the North Fork with sections of their business on both sides of Sound Avenue — parking and a pumpkin patch on the south side and more parking among an array of farm stand buildings on the north side. Last fall, the planning board and Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley pushed for traffic control and better parking at Harbes. They suggested using a to help during the height of harvest season and the installation of
But Councilman Al Krupski said that this latest plan seemed to address many of the concerns brought up last fall.
“We’re looking at only about four weekends a year here,” he said.
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