Village order: Hold the eateries

Northport Village's downtown offers about a dozen places to eat - from breakfast to pizza to after-theater snacks - all within walking distance of the harbor. Now a new restaurant featuring hot dogs wants to move in - but before it can, it needs village approval.

That's because the village has an ordinance that requires new restaurants and bars to be at least 300 feet from existing eateries.

The 14-seat restaurant is proposed for an empty storefront on Woodbine Avenue in the same block as another harborfront restaurant.

The architect for the eatery, Alex Latham, says the village's Zoning Board of Appeals has asked him to submit a report about what the "saturation of restaurants" would mean to the village.

How many is too many?

At a recent hearing on the restaurant's application for a variance, the zoning board posed the question about "saturation of restaurants and what's too many," said Latham, of ADL III Architecture in Northport, which also specializes in town planning.

Some residents at the hearing expressed concern that the village already has too many restaurants and called on the board to aim for a balance with more retail establishments.

The law regulating restaurants dates to the 1970s, according to village attorney James Matthews.

"It was put into place when there were a proliferation of bars in the village, so the rationale was they didn't want a saturation of those businesses," Matthews said.

The ordinance doesn't specifically mention liquor, but, by regulating restaurants and bars, it is also regulating where on-site consumption of food or alcoholic beverages occurs.

Peter Panarites, a former mayor who owns the Northport Sweet Shop on Main Street, said he would like to see a moratorium on the number of variances allowed under the ordinance.

"There is a proliferation of restaurants here, and everyone is cutting into everyone else's throat," Panarites said. "We need to have a balanced village with a variety of stores."

Three establishments have received variances: Maroni Cuisine restaurant on Woodbine Avenue, the Northport Tasting Room & Wine Cellar on Main Street and, most recently, La Porta Pizza on Main Street.

Matthews said the board decided the Northport Tasting Room, a wine bar, "was a unique use, and they felt it was not going to change the character" of the village. And he noted that the pizza parlor, with limited seating and no servers, is primarily a takeout restaurant.

Archaic, but fair

Latham said he finds the law somewhat archaic, but the board applies it fairly.

"It really becomes not so much a tool to say 'no,' " Latham said, "but a tool to make sure you know what's going on. It keeps everybody on point as to when applications are coming in - are there too many restaurants too close together - so it's like a regulating feature to help the zoning board to act accordingly."

Matthews said despite discussion at the hearing about whether the ordinance is necessary, it doesn't seem likely to go away.

"The [village] board felt the ZBA could intelligently and legally weigh the benefit to the applicant" compared to the potential impact on the community, he said.