What’s the plan for Riverhead’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant? Public meetings take place Monday

Riverhead Town was awarded a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant in January. What comes next?

The DRI process involves a state-local partnership that includes a local planning committee, state agency staff, and a state-contracted consultant team, according to the state DRI Guidebook (See below.)

The town has established the local planning committee, as required by the grant. It has not yet announced the local planning committee’s membership, other than its co-chairs, Supervisor Yvette Aguiar and former Greenport Mayor David Kapell.

According to the guidebook, the local planning committee is made up of “local and regional leaders, stakeholders, and community representatives.”

The local planning committee, working with state agency staff, and the consultants, will prepare a strategic investment plan that will include: a profile of the downtown; a refined vision that was included in the town’s DRI application; strategies and methods to achieve the downtown vision; and projects key to overall downtown revitalization.

Local planning committee members are also tasked with identifying the best ways to engage the community in the process and take an active role in public outreach, according to the guidebook. Outreach should be both to inform the public and to receive suggestions from the public, the state guidebook says.

The local planning committee held its first meeting virtually on Feb. 25, according to a recently launched website for the DRI. It was not open to the public. The committee’s first public meeting will take place at 3 p.m. Monday at Riverhead Town Hall. It is open to the public and may be attended in-person or via Zoom. (Register for Zoom access here.)

The first public participation session will take place Monday evening at Town Hall from 6 to 8 p.m. The public can also participate in the session via Zoom. Register for Zoom access here.

Riverhead’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative website, riverheaddri.com, provides access to the town’s DRI grant application, a schedule of local planning committee meetings and public participation sessions, and links to register to participate via Zoom, as applicable.

The state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative was launched by the N.Y. Department of State in 2016 and in the first four rounds of funding (2016-2019) awarded $100 million annually in $10 million grants to communities in each of New York’s 10 regions. There were no grant awards in 2020 due to the pandemic. In the fifth round of funding in 2021, the state funded $200 million, with $20 million in grants for each region. Two communities in each region received $10 million grants, except in the New York City region, where one community, Chinatown, was awarded a $20 million grant.

Riverhead applied for the entire $20 million allotted for the Long Island Region, but received $10 million. The other $10 million L.I. grant went to the Village of Amityville. The state announced the L.I. awards on Jan. 13. Long Island was the final region to be announced in Round Five of the DRI grants. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the first award in November. Related: Elated Riverhead officials celebrate $10M downtown revitalization grant

In its DRI application, Riverhead proposed spending a $20 million award on eight projects. The three largest of these include $4.5 million for site improvements and amenities for the town square project, $4.8 million to implement floodplain mitigation projects downtown and $4.5 million to offset the cost of construction for a public parking garage near the Long Island Rail Road.

The town in its application also requested money to support a number of other downtown projects. The application stated that if Riverhead was awarded $20 million, it would allocate $2 million to upgrade and expand the historic Suffolk Theater, $2 million to restore the historic Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, $2 million on paths connecting downtown and the railroad area and $2 million to support the Long Island Science Center. The Science Center purchased the building adjoining the town square adjoining the town square site on the west for a new home that will include a rooftop planetarium, a lecture hall and a wind and solar exhibit. The science center received a $775,000 grant to expand its facility in Riverhead from Empire State Development in 2019, and in December received $1.12 million to further that development.

Community Development Director Dawn Thomas said on the day the award was announced she had intended to reduce the allocations by half in the event the town was awarded $10 million rather than $20 million.

The Town of Riverhead has undertaken a number of planning studies for the downtown district over the years and has adopted several plans for the area. Among them are an urban renewal area plan, the town’s comprehensive plan adopted in 2003, a brownfields opportunities area nomination study, and a pattern book, which was adopted by the town board following a planning effort by hired consultants but has not yet been codified. Riverhead has already purchased and razed two derelict buildings on East Main Street to make way for a town square.

The town has also adopted a Transit-Oriented Development plan for the Railroad Avenue area and established an overlay zone providing increased development density and additional permitted uses to incentivize redevelopment in the blighted area. The town board has picked a master developer for a five-story mixed-use development on the site of a town-owned parking lot opposite the Riverhead train station. The new overlay district has also so far resulted in two other applications for five-story mixed-use developments, one on the corner of Osborn Avenue and Court Street and the other on the corner of West Main Street and Sweezy Avenue.

N.Y. Downtown Revitalization Initiative Round Five Guidebook by RiverheadLOCAL on Scribd