Environmental advocates and several Riverhead residents urged the Town Board Tuesday to reject Island Water Park’s latest request to loosen restrictions on uses at Scott’s Pointe, warning that the proposal would undo environmental safeguards the board relied on less than a year ago when it approved a prior site plan amendment for the Calverton amusement park.
Island Water Park owner Eric Scott sharply rejected criticism of the application and repeatedly characterized opponents’ statements as “fake news.”
“I don’t care about the complainers,” Scott said. “What I want to do is state facts and straighten out the fake news.” He said his operation protects the environment and provides family fun, calling critics of Scott’s Pointe “people that don’t enjoy fun [and] try to ruin it for everybody.”
The hearing concerned Island Water Park Corp.’s application to amend its site plan and special permit for the property at 5835 Middle Country Road. The application seeks approval for a zip line across the site’s manmade lake, temporary floating docks for battery-powered bumper boats, a fire-suppression well and changes to recorded covenants restricting use of the go-kart track and lake.
More coverage of Island Water Park/Scott’s Pointe
The most controversial part of the application is a request to amend a covenant that currently limits the track to go-karts and prohibits other vehicles. The applicant wants the restriction changed to allow special events using drift cars, according to Senior Planner Greg Bergman, who summarized the application for the board at the start of the hearing.
Bergman noted that the go-kart-only restriction was imposed as part of a conditioned negative declaration adopted by the Town Board in March 2025 in connection with the last site plan application. The board granted final site planapproval for that application on June 17, 2025.
The current application also seeks to rescind a 2014 covenant restricting use of the lake and replace it with language allowing “sealed environmentally safe marine battery-powered motorized watercraft,” including bumper boats, e-foils, canoes, kayaks, rental sailboats and similar watercraft, Bergman said.
More coverage:Riverhead weighs lifting go-kart-only, motorized boat restrictions at Scott’s Pointe
Bergman also told the board the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Mineral Resources issued final reclamation approval for the site April 16, ending DEC’s mined-land jurisdiction over the property.
Source: RiverheadLOCAL
