At code hearing, a strong show of support for Family Community Life Center plans

More than a dozen people spoke in favor of the Family Community Life Center development plan yesterday at a Riverhead Town Board public hearing on the proposed zoning code that would allow the nonprofit organization to bring its long-sought plan to fruition.

FCLC executive director Shirley Coverdale invited speaker after speaker to the podium in a well-orchestrated show of support for the development that she and her husband, the Rev. Charles Coverdale, and members of the First Baptist Church of Riverhead community have been pursuing for nearly three decades.

One by one, speakers implored the board to give the project a thumbs-up, highlighting the specific community needs the FCLC — with its proposed 125-unit rental apartments, adult day care program, child care facilities, performance space, and indoor pool and track on 12.5 acres on Northville Turnpike — would meet.

“There is no down side” to the project, Riverhead Building Supply chairman Edgar Goodale declared during the hearing in the packed town hall meeting room.

“Riverhead and Long Island as a whole are in desperate need of high-quality alternatives for housing that young and growing families can afford and that will enable hard-working and ambitious young people to start their lives and careers in neighborhoods they grew up in,” Suffolk County National Bank president and CEO Howard Bluver told the board. “I hope this board recognizes the positive impacts this project will have on our community.”

Jennifer Appel, general counsel and program advisor to the L.I. Housing Partnership, a Hauppauge-based non-profit that assists developers and municipalities with affordable housing developments, said Long Island “lacks the necessary mix of housing to meet the needs of all Long Islanders.” According to the Long Island Index, she said, only 17 percent of all housing on the Island is multifamily housing. In other areas similar to Long Island, multifamily housing comprises 38 percent of the housing stock, she said.

Peconic Bay Medical Center senior vice president Demetrios Kadenas, speaking on behalf of CEO Andrew Mitchell, said FCLC will fulfill the community’s growing needs for housing stock and healthy living environments.

“The town needs recreational facilities for young people,” Larry Williams, a member of the town’s recreation advisory committee said.

His sentiments were echoed by Riverhead civic activist Thelma White, who said when the FCLC scale model was first unveiled many years ago, her young son became excited that the town would have basketball courts and a pool. Now, White said, her son is a married man with children of his own who are still lacking those opportunities.

East End Arts executive director Pat Snyder spoke in support of the plan, saying it would enhance cultural arts in the community.

Barry Barth, owner of Barth’s Drug Store on East Main Street said he’s been a longtime supporter of the project, which he sees as beneficial to his business because it will provide both housing and child care needed by his employees.

“As I become grayer or whiter on top,” Barth said, “I’m hoping it wil be a place where I can go for recreation — or whatever’s necessary,” he said to laughter from the audience.

Coverdale’s presentation ended with a video about the project featuring interviews with community leaders — including some who made their pitch in person at the hearing— expressing support for the project.

Riverhead Board of Education president Ann Cotten-DeGrasse, speaking on behalf of the school district, asked the town board to consider the property tax implications of the project.

Cotten-DeGrasse said the district’s classrooms are at capacity under to the district’s contractual limits. The currently underway capital improvements are not aimed at expansion, she noted. They are upgrading the district’s facilities.

“The school district this year — this September — was surprised with 200 additional registrants,” the school board president said. “We are not like the districts in Lindenhurst or Half Hollow Hills that are closing schools. We are packed to the limit.”

“The school board is not opposed to the zoning change. The school board is not opposed to the Family Community Life Center. The school board is not opposed to workforce housing,” Cotten-DeGrasse said.

“The school board is opposed to it being tax-exempt.”

Real estate broker Larry Oxman and Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition president Dominique Mendez both focused their comments on the proposed code — the subject matter of the hearing — rather than the FCLC’s specific proposal, which, if the code is approved, would come up for special permit and site plan hearings at later dates.

Both Oxman and Mendez noted that the code would create an overlay zone that may be applied to an as-yet undisclosed number of parcels within the township.

Oxman said the code as proposed is in need of some tweaks. The code sets forth eligibility standards for the overlay zone, specifying minimum parcel size (10 acres), location on a state or county arterial highway, minimum road frontage requirements and proximity to both the Riverhead water and sewer districts. Oxman questioned some of the requirements, particularly the 800-foot minimum road frontage, which he said seemed “very arbitrary.”

He also noted the language used requires “sufficient proximity” to the sewer and water district boundaries so as to “permit access to such infrastructure,” but doesn’t mandate actual sewer and water hook-ups. Oxman also suggested that requiring proximity to the Riverhead sewer district would prevent the community benefit overlay district from being placed on properties in parts of the town, such as Wading River, which don’t have proximity to the sewer district but need affordable housing, too.

Mendez said the proposed code — though it’s called a “community benefit district” and says in its “purpose and intent” section that multifamily rental housing” is to be combined with an on-site community center and other non-residential uses” that will enhance the surrounding community — does not actually mandate the development of any facilities or amenities that will enhance the community.

The intent clause says one thing, but the code itself says something else, she said.

“I’m sure that language like that does help garner public support,” Mendez said, “but I’m not sure it’s honest. It’s what’s expressly required, allowed and prohibited that really matters, not the intent clause. We have to make sure that what’s expressly required, allowed and prohibited directly corresponds to the intent and vice versa.”

The way the draft is written, Mendez said, as long as the rental dwellings are 100-percent
“affordable,” the requirements of the code are met. “Any low-income housing project would qualify. Is that really what the board wants?”
Another concern, Mendez said, is passing a code aimed at a specific project.

“Sometimes it’s easy to get myopic and think this is a great project — and not see the big picture,” she said. Mendez said she’s tried “several times” without success to obtain information about what other parcels the CBD zoning can be applied to.

Supervisor Sean Walter said that analysis has been done and was discussed at a town board work session.

“I’m coming in here having asked multiple times for that information and havent’ gotten it. That should have been released to the public before this hearing. It should be put online, made easily accessible. How are we going to look at a zone if we don’t even know where it could land? How are we to really comment on it?” she asked, suggesting that the board might need to hold a second public hearing after the data was made public.

“We’re not going to get into that,” Walter replied. “Rick [Hanley] will give you the frequency analysis and I’m leaving it open for written comment,” he said.

Mendez said in a phone interview Thursday that what the planning director showed her after the hearing was “very preliminary.” It was a map that showed some parcels as eligible which did not meet the criteria and didn’t show other eligible parcels which did meet the criteria.

“Based on what he showed me, to say that there was an analysis done that showed what this zone could land on is just not accurate,” Mendez said. The town needs to determine how many units could be developed under the new code, if it’s adopted and then assess the impacts the new development may have on the community, she said.

“It’s clear the town board doesn’t know which parcels the proposed zone could be applied to. All they have is the first step. The town is supposed to analyze the impacts,” Mendez said.

“That’s basic land use 101,” Mendez said.

Group for the East End senior environmental advocate Jenn Hartnagel questioned whether the town has commenced the review process mandated by state law.

“GFEE has long taken the position that it’s important to have planning documents such as environmental assessment forms, planning department reports, planning board reports, maps and other supporting SEQRA documentation available prior to the public hearing so that the public can participate in a meaningful and informed manner,” Hartnagel said Thursday.

The record of the public hearing was left open until Nov. 14 for written comments.

Photo captions, from top: 1. Suffolk County National Bank president and CEO Howard Bluver, speaking in support of the proposed Family Community Life Center development, addresses the Riverhead Town Board Wednesday afternoon. 2. First Baptist Church Senior Pastor Charles Coverdale with a concept plan for the FCLC in his office at the church in March. RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti