Proclaiming downtown Riverhead “absolutely critical” to the future of Suffolk County, County Executive Steve Bellone came to the county seat this morning to throw the county’s support behind the proposed Family Community Life Center on Northville Turnpike, the mixed-use development that would bring a community center, an indoor pool, an indoor track, classroom and meeting space, a performing arts space and 132 workforce housing units to a 12-and-a-half-acre site adjacent to the First Baptist Church of Riverhead.
“This project completely fits within the county’s economic development plans,” Bellone told a gathering of more than 60 people at the Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Center on East Main Street, where developer Ron Parr sponsored a breakfast presentation for community supporters and stakeholders this morning.
In the audience were members of the FCLC steering committee, Congressman Tim Bishop, County Legislator Al Krupski, Riverhead schools superintendent Nancy Carney, clergy members and civic leaders.
Also in the audience were two of the five people whose decision in the coming weeks may make or break the project that First Baptist pastor Charles Coverdale has now pursued for more than 25 years: Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman John Dunleavy.
The town board will hold a Nov. 6 public hearing on a zoning code change to create a community benefit “overlay district” that will allow for the mixed use, high-density development plan on Northville Turnpike.
Walter, who has endorsed the proposal, thanked
Bellone for the county’s support and, referencing a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes that he read aloud, said of the long-sought center, “This is the time God has selected. It is God’s own time and this is going to happen.”
Dunleavy has objected to the plan, raising concerns about tax impacts and demands for services. After the supervisor spoke, he took the podium and seemed to endorse the proposal — to the thinly veiled surprise of the pastor, FCLC executive director Shirley Coverdale and First Baptist associate pastor the Rev. Cynthia Ligon.
“Riverhead does need a community life center,” Dunleavy told the group. “We used to do a lot of things for our senior citizens but because of budget cuts we cut those things out,” he said. “The youth bureau we had to cut out. Because of budget restraints the community life center is surely needed in the Town of Riverhead,” Dunleavy said. He thanked the FCLC proponents for their persistence and apologized to their representative Cleveland Johnson, whom he said the Riverhead Town Board always gives “a hard time.”
“Thank you for putting up with us,” Dunleavy told Johnson.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Dunleavy even put his signature on a petition in favor of the project, which stated the signatories “do hereby petition the elected officials of the Town of Riverhead to approve the zoning and site plan establishing the Community Benefit District and enabling the Family Community Life Center to move forward to completion.”
But in an interview moments later, Dunleavy said he had not made up his mind to support the plan as proposed.
“I’m supportive of the community life center. Riverhead does need the community life center,” Dunleavy said. But he said he couldn’t yet commit to supporting the adoption of the community benefit district, which would allow for the mixed-use development proposed by FCLC.
“I will have to listen to the hearing and see what people have to say,” the councilman said.
Dunleavy said he couldn’t support the housing aspect of the proposal unless FCLC makes payments in lieu of taxes to cover the cost of services associated with the housing.
The other three council members did not attend the meeting.
Reached afterward, councilmen James Wooten and George Gabrielsen both expressed support for FCLC, albeit it qualified.
“If we can mitigate all the concerns everyone has about tax base, impacts on the community, the things we have to look at as a town board when it comes to zoning matters,” Wooten said, “at this point I do support it.”
Gabrielsen said his concerns about the project sponsors not purchasing farmland development rights to increase development density on the site were relieved by the project’s use of banked workforce housing development credits.
“I’m pretty well satisfied at this point,” Gabrielsen said in a phone interview. He added the precise density of the development would have to be determined in the site plan review process.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said she doesn’t see herself supporting the plan as proposed.
“I think a project like this belongs in the sewer district. It’s going to cost $2 million to extend the sewer district to this site,” she said. There’s property available on West Main Street that’s suitable for such a development, according to Giglio.
Giglio also expressed concern about the density of the development being pumped up by development rights purchased off land in other towns. “I’d like to see them coming from Riverhead properties,” she said of the purchased development rights, adding that she thought 10 units per acre is “too intense” in any event; eight units per acre, which she noted was double the density allowed in any other zoning use district, would be more appropriate, she said.
She also said the town should insist on sufficient payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT payments, to cover the cost of services to the project, including the tab for educating children who live there.
“As long as our services are covered and the taxpayers are not subsidizing the project in perpetuity,” Giglio said. “It’s one thing to incentivize something and another thing to subsidize them forever.”
Giglio said it’s the town board’s job “to evaluate the proposal after it’s presented at a public hearing, after all the facts are on the table. Right now we don’t have all the facts on the table.”
FCLC execuitve director Shirley Coverdale said in an interview after the presentation that the group “expects impacts on the schools to be minimal.” The organization will partner with the schools to provide universal pre-K, which is a benefit to the school district. It is offering to make PILOT payments to cover fire and police services, she said. The school district supports the proposal, she noted, as does the CEO of PBMC Health, Andrew Mitchell and the CEO of Suffolk County National Bank, Howard Bluver, both of whom appeared in a video coverdale presented to the audience, along with the former CEO of Riverhead Building Supply, Edgar Goodale.
Photo captions, from top: 1. County executive Steve Bellone looks at artist renderings of the Family Community Life Center project this morning during a presentation at Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Center on East Main Street in Riverhead; 2. Bellone addresses the audience; 3. Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter speaking about his support of the proposal; 4. Councilman John Dunleavy signs a petition addressed to Riverhead Town officials seeking approval of the project; 5. First Baptist Church Pastor Charles Coverdale and Associate Pastor Cynthia Ligon listen to Councilman John Dunleavy’s remarks this morning. 6. Artist renderings of the proposed buildings on display at the meeting.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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