The Suffolk County Water Authority has sued the Town of Riverhead in State Supreme Court, challenging the Town Board’s determination that SCWA must comply with local zoning and land-use requirements for its proposed North Fork Water Main Project. The agency announced the lawsuit in a press release Friday afternoon.
SCWA is seeking a judgment declaring the project exempt from Riverhead zoning and land-use regulation, annulling the Riverhead Town Board’s Oct. 7, 2025 resolution on the issue, and barring the town from enforcing zoning and related local approvals against the project.
SCWA’s North Fork Water Main Projectwould install about 8.15 miles of 24-inch main from Flanders Road, across the Peconic River, north along Cross River Drive and Northville Turnpike, then east on Sound Avenue to the Southold town line. A new booster station would be built on SCWA-owned property on Pier Avenue, just north of Sound Avenue in Riverhead. The rest of the main to be built in Southold during the first phase of the project would serve SCWA customers. A second phase, described as long-range planning, would extend smaller-diameter mains about 3.8 miles from East Marion to Orient.
The dispute centers on theMonroe balancing test, a legal standard used by New York courts to determine when a governmental entity is immune from municipal zoning. SCWA argues that, as a public benefit corporation created under the state Public Authorities Law to provide water service and carry out what it describes as an essential governmental function, it is exempt from local zoning and land-use controls for the infrastructure project. Riverhead contends the town can apply its zoning and land-use rules to the project.
After holding aMonroehearing, the Riverhead Town Board determined on Oct. 7 that the project was not immune from local regulation and asserted SCWA would need a series of town approvals, including a special permit, road opening permit, site plan approval, building permits and certificate of occupancy/compliance for the booster station, a fire marshal construction permit, wetlands permits, and excavation and grading permits, among other requirements.
The water authority held a series of threeMonroehearings in October and determined that it is exempt from Riverhead zoning and land-use regulations. Ina resolution dated Nov. 20, the SCWA board applied the state’sMonroe“balancing of public interests” test and concluded the North Fork Water Main Project is “undisputably” immune from municipal jurisdiction, including the Town of Riverhead’s zoning, site plan and permit requirements.
SCWA contends in its complaint that the Town Board’s determination was arbitrary and legally flawed, arguing that theMonroefactors weigh in favor of immunity because the project serves a public purpose related to reliable potable water supply and that local regulation would impair SCWA’s ability to carry out its statutory mission.
The court fight over the North Fork pipeline comes against a backdrop of periodic Riverhead–SCWA clashes overwater-service authority and local control— disputes that have surfaced in different forms for more than a decade, including the still-unresolvedEPCAL service-territory issue. Both sides say they’re following the law and protecting the public interest; the immediate question now is whether Riverhead can require local permits for the project or whether SCWA is immune under theMonroebalancing test.
Riverhead officials and residents have argued that, regardless of the project’s regional benefits, Riverhead would bear most of the construction impacts because the main would be installed on a stretch of Sound Avenue from Northville Turnpike to the Southold town line.
Read more:Suffolk County Water Authority’s proposed North Fork pipeline: officials, residents question needs and benefits at Riverhead Town forum
Source: RiverheadLOCAL
