Riverhead Town should eliminate 24 acres of existing retail zoning along Route 25A in Wading River to preserve the character of that hamlet, according to planning consultants hired by the town to update its master plan for the 25A corridor.
Property along Route 25A, east of the CVS pharmacy on the south side and east of the former ice cream store on the north, should be rezoned to eliminate new retail development, Frank Fish of BFJ Planning told the Riverhead Town Board Thursday.
BFJ's initial proposal for the Wading River master plan update, formulated after meetings with property owners, merchants and civic groups, is to replace retail zoning in the eastern portion of the corridor with the multifamily residential professional office (MRP) zone.
The MRP zone, already in place on the north side of 25A east of the gas station, allows for the development of residential dwelling units at a density of three or four units to the acre, depending on the number of bedrooms per unit. It also allows professional offices. BFJ also suggested amending the MRP zone to allow 55 and over retirement communities, or, alternatively, to rezone some of the area RC (retirement community). The RC zone currently does not exist in Wading River and there is a market for that type of housing, Fish said.
The planners say the town should act to keep the hamlet's commercial hub centered around the intersection of Route 25A and Wading River-Manor Road. They did not recommend any changes to the CR zone west of the intersection.
"Let the area around the intersection remain the basic retail zone for Wading River," Fish said.
The planners made no recommendation concerning the CR zone in which the 37,000-square-foot Knightland retail development is situated because, Fish said, there is currently pending litigation affecting that site. The Planning Board approved the Knightland site plan last month. The Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition sued the town the very next day, challenging the legality of the approval. See story.
Fish said on the advice of legal counsel, BFJ would not recommend any changes to the CR zoning on the Knightland site while the lawsuit is pending.
There are several other retail development projects proposed in the Route 25A corridor, but Knightland is the only one to gain town approval so far.
The pending proposals are cited by civic activists as the reason the town should put a short-term moratorium in place while the study is being completed and new zoning adopted. Town officials have rejected the moratorium idea, arguing that it is unnecessary because landowners in the corridor are generally not ready to develop their properties.
"The town is considering nearly 200,000 square feet of new commercial development along the main corridor in the rural hamlet," according to Wading River resident Dominique Mendez, president of the RNPC. The RNPC has advocated the moratorium and, together with Wading River Civic Association and the Group for the East End, launched a campaign last year called "Save Wading River."
The activists have been at odds with members of the Town Board, most publicly with Supervisor Sean Walter, over the moratorium and other development issues in the corridor. The debate turned acrimonious just before the 2011 general election. See story.
The acrimony carried over into the new year, with Walter and Mendez sparring with harsh words during the first Town Board meeting of 2012. The subject of that interchange was whether there would be — or whether there had already been — a "public workshop" on the master plan update in Wading River, as promised by BFJ in its contract with the town.
Contention around that question sprung up in a 20-minute debate among Town Board members at Thursday's meeting, with the supervisor and council members arguing over whether an Oct. 24 civic group meeting with BFJ was a second focus group meeting or a workshop. Walter argued the public workshop had taken place and wanted to hold a public forum on the proposal at an upcoming Town Board meeting in Riverhead Town Hall. Councilmen Wooten and Dunleavy argued that the workshop had not taken place and should be scheduled in Wading River for the convenience of residents.
Fish said he thought the Oct. 24 meeting with civic groups had been the workshop promised by BFJ, but said he'd be happy to schedule another meeting at no extra cost to the town. Officials and the planner agreed on Saturday, Feb. 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at a location — in Wading River — to be determined.
Civic leader Sid Bail was cautiously optimistic about the direction in which the update is going.
"I think Frank listened very carefully to the information presented at the focus groups by us and by property owners," Bail said Friday. "I think he came up with something that's a workable format," Bail said. "I think it's on course. I'm also encouraged that the Town Board is going to let us have a public workshop in Wading River before the other hearnings take place," Bail said.
The board will open up its Feb. 22 regular meeting for comments on the plan update. A formal public hearing on the update and associated proposed zoning code changes will be scheduled thereafter. Fish said he hoped that could be accomplished by April.
BFJ's fee to complete the planning study is $50,000 under a contract signed with the town last year. The firm recently completed a Route 25A corridor study for the Town of Brookhaven, covering Miller Place to the Riverhead Town line. It also did a Wading River hamlet study for Riverhead in the late 1980s, which developed the CR zoning currently in place in the hamlet.
