Scott's Pointe reopens in Calverton after winning Riverhead Town's site plan approval

A new lakefront go-kart track is ready to race on after the owner of Scott’s Pointe in Calverton won final approval from the Town of Riverhead after a yearlong dispute.

The racetrack opened Saturday following a lengthy back-and-forth with the town to legalize the track, pickleball courts and a catering hall that were built without permits.

The town board voted 4-1 to grant final site plan approval for the illegally built additions on June 17, about a month after laying out several conditions in a preliminary approval. Though the owner hasn’t fully met the criteria set by the board, town officials said the business had “adequately addressed” their concerns, according to the resolution.

Councilwoman Denise Merrifield voted against the approval. Merrifield, who opposed approvals for Scott's Pointe in the past, has said the park should have faced tougher consequences for building without permits.

Eric Scott opened the adventure park in 2023 and has been seeking retroactive approvals for the additions since the town and state Department of Environmental Conservation issued tickets in June 2024. He has since settled with the Town of Riverhead for $50,000 and also with the DEC, officials said.

Riverhead’s final approval paves the way for the adventure park’s first fully operational summer, Scott said in an interview on Wednesday.

“Saturday was our first real opening day, and it was a blockbuster hit,” he said. “All the bureaucracy is over.”

The park touts the nearly mile-long track as a “challenging” course with 22 turns, according to its website.

Scott signed an agreement with the DEC on June 13 to settle violations for operating an inflatable aqua park prematurely. The project required a mining permit to excavate and create the freshwater lake. State environmental laws prevent recreation in active mining states. The land must be restored in a process known as reclamation before it can be used again. 

The DEC imposed a $186,000 penalty, which will be reduced to $55,000 if the business complies with certain terms. Those include providing proof of liability insurance for recreation in the lake and complying with a reclamation plan to revegetate the slopes around the lake.

A DEC spokesperson said the go-kart track and pickleball area are outside the mine area.

In its preliminary approval last month, Riverhead required Scott to fully resolve the violations with the DEC and reclaim a former mining site that was used to create a manmade lake.

The town also required the park to obtain a freshwater wetlands determination from the state DEC, get permits from the town fire marshal, stop runoff from the racetrack from entering the groundwater-fed lake and file a covenant restricting use of the track to only go-karts.

Riverhead, in its approval, cited an email from the DEC confirming that no freshwater wetlands permit is necessary.

Kathy McGraw, a Northville resident, criticized the board for approving the site plan before the park had satisfied all of the town's requirements.

“This approval is anything but tough,” she said at the town meeting. “Just another cave-in to a serial offender.”

But town officials said the agreement between Scott and the DEC is adequate and signals the state agency's “full blessing” for the project.

Riverhead town attorney Erik Howard said the state “has no objection to the proposed activities," as long as Scott complies with the DEC consent order and other conditions.