Northport law may allow waterfront eatery

The Village of Northport is considering modifying its laws to allow a popular waterfront eatery to continue to operate while mollifying neighborhood complaints about noises from the restaurant.

A group of residents who live near the Whale's Tale, a tenant of the Britannia Yachting Center, earlier this year sued the village, Britannia and the restaurant. They claim the Whale's Tale expanded far beyond the 20-seat short-order snack bar permitted by restrictive covenants on the property to become an 84-seat casual restaurant serving alcohol and featuring live music.

The proposed legislation would add restaurants to the list of permitted uses in the village's marine business district, a zone that currently only includes Britannia's 17-acre site on Route 25A.

Under the proposed rules, the Whale's Tale would have to apply for a special-use permit to continue to operate. Live and amplified music would be limited to indoors only, but as many as four outdoor music events per year would be allowed with special permission.

Allowed uses in the district also would be expanded to include marine-related clothing, provisions and seafood sales, and maritime insurance. Taverns and nightclubs, floating restaurants, ferries and party boats would be prohibited.

The legislation will be the subject of a Dec. 20 public hearing at Village Hall.

Jim Matthews, attorney for the village and its board of zoning appeals, said the proposal is intended to satisfy business and neighborhood interests.

"They want to allow some flexibility so the property can be used in an economically viable way, but at the same time they're mindful of the impacts on the area," Matthews said of the village trustees' intent.

Christopher Modelewski, a Huntington attorney representing the Whale's Tale, said he would have preferred legislation allowing limited outdoor live music.

"It's hard to reckon and understand why a single guy sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar is objectionable to people who live 500 or so feet away from that activity," Modelewski said. "It does seem, as written, that the legislation is tailored to mollify the objections of those few neighbors that did complain."

E. Christopher Murray, the Uniondale attorney representing the eight Milland Drive neighbors who filed the lawsuit, said he thought the legislation had "positive aspects."

"I think they did make some efforts to try to mitigate harms to the neighbors," Murray said, adding that he wants to speak further with his clients.

One of those clients, Milland Drive resident Andrew Aberham, said he still would like to see a complete ban on live and amplified music -- one of the residents' main complaints.

"Why would they need music to begin with? They're a restaurant. There are plenty of restaurants in Northport Village that don't have music," he said.