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ZBA approves reduced deck with restoration plan for Jamesport home on bluff
Summary
The Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance June 11 for a reduced rear deck at 888 Soundshore Road in Jamesport, conditioning approval on a revegetation and erosion-control plan and limits on construction methods to minimize bluff disturbance.
The Riverhead Zoning Board of Appeals on June 11 approved a variance allowing a reduced rear-deck for a Jamesport homeowner, provided the applicant implements a restoration and vegetation plan to protect a bluff area.
The board granted appeal 2026-011 for Brian McInness, allowing a 12-foot deck with a 3-foot cantilever instead of the larger configuration discussed at prior hearings. The motion included a condition requiring compliance with the submitted revegetation and erosion-control sketches and specifications.
At the meeting, Robert Strosky, representing the applicant, described structural changes intended to minimize disturbance to the bluff. He said the design would move the column line landward, reduce the deck footprint, and rely on “hand-dug” piers rather than heavy equipment. “We would only need three piers to support the girder; they would be hand dug, no larger than 20 inches in diameter,” Strosky said, adding that crews would seed and stabilize disturbed areas and install silt controls.
Strosky also told the board that the applicant had shared the revised plan with the state conservation agency and that a 2022 letter of non‑jurisdiction for the site had been issued previously. He said the agency indicated that such a letter does not expire provided site conditions have not materially changed.
The board reviewed hard copies of the updated site plan and the restoration plan during the hearing and asked that the landscape/restoration work be included in the record and compliance conditions. A motion to accept the updated survey and plan and to include implementation of the landscape plan as part of the approval passed; members voting in favor were Mr. Barnes, Mrs. Liski and Mr. Porcher.
The variance is recorded as granted with the condition that all work be completed in accordance with the submitted restoration and vegetation plan and any amendments filed with the building inspector. The board noted that the applicant agreed to hand excavation for piers, temporary erosion controls and planting to restore disturbed bluff vegetation.
The board did not specify a separate enforcement timetable at the hearing; the restoration plan is to be filed as part of the building permit record. The record for appeal 2026-011 will include the updated plan and sketches.
