Representatives from Calverton Aviation & Technology will update the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency and Riverhead residents on their current vision for the proposed project at Calverton Enterprise Park on Monday, Aug. 7, the Riverhead IDA has announced.
A press release announcing the meeting was posted on the Riverhead IDA website.
The Riverhead IDA requested CAT representatives to make the presentation at the public information session, which will take place at Riverhead Town Hall on Aug. 7, immediately following the IDA’s regularly scheduled meeting, which begins at 5 p.m., the IDA said in the press release.
A public comment period will be provided, the IDA said.
This will not be the IDA’s public hearing on the application, the agency said. The public hearing will be held at a later date.
Participants may also attend the Aug. 7 meeting via Zoom. Email the Riverhead IDA (director@riverheadida.org) by close of business on Friday, Aug. 4 for the Zoom link and log-on instructions. You must include your name, address and phone number in the email.
Pre-registration is required for those attending virtually.
The public information session can also be viewed live on the town’s website at www.townofriverheadny.gov under Channel 22 using the live stream link.
Will CAT present modified development plans on Aug. 7?
A prior public information session held by the Riverhead IDA on May 3 at the Hotel Indigo in Riverhead was packed with residents who spoke out against the plans presented by CAT at the Sept. 21, 2022 Riverhead IDA meeting.
The plans presented Sept. 21 depicted the development of 10 million square feet of industrial/commercial buildings at the Calverton Enterprise Park, mostly comprising logistics and distribution buildings to be accessed by jets delivering freight to the site, which, according to CAT’s presentation to the IDA, would be shipped via tractor-trailer to other warehouse facilities in the region.
“Currently, that end of the logistics business is not handled on Long Island,” CAT engineer Chris Robinson said during that presentation. “This would be an incredible opportunity to bring that here…to provide that on Long Island and help feed Long Island from that end of it, versus all of the trucking that currently comes…from points west,” Robinson said.
WATCH: CAT’s Sept. 21, 2022 presentation to the Riverhead IDA.
The presentation — CAT’S first public presentation of the plan — caused an immediate uproar in the community among residents alarmed by the prospect of potential air cargo uses at EPCAL. CAT representatives quickly denied their plans included an “air cargo terminal.”
Since the May 3 information session at Hotel Indigo, some town officials and candidates for town office, including Council Member Tim Hubbard, the Republican nominee for town supervisor this year, say they do not support the plan presented by CAT at the Sept. 21 Riverhead IDA meeting. The plan presented at that meeting was also detailed in the joint application for IDA benefits filed by the town and CAT in September 2022. Hubbard and other Town Board members said they had not seen the plan before authorizing the Community Development Agency to submit the joint application.
MORE COVERAGE: Town Board members claim they didn’t see controversial EPCAL air cargo plans before they were publicly presented to Riverhead IDA
Hubbard said earlier this month he would not support a “cargo jetport” at the EPCAL site. He authored a guest column published on RiverheadLOCAL denouncing the idea, in which he stated, “I will never let that happen. Not on my watch.”
In a follow-up interview, Hubbard told RiverheadLOCAL the plan may comply with the site’s existing zoning. “But it’s not anything we’re ever going to let happen,” he said. The town would require the developer to file covenants preventing such a use, Hubbard said.
Hubbard also said he believed CAT would be presenting modified plans at an upcoming IDA hearing.
The following week, CAT CEO Justin Ghermezian, vice chairman of Triple Five, said in a guest column published by RiverheadLOCAL that CAT respected Hubbard’s position and the opinions voiced by residents at the May 3 public forum hosted by the Riverhead IDA. Ghermezian said the company’s “development plans will not include a cargo jetport.”
The Riverhead IDA said in the press release announcing the Aug. 7 session that it is continuing its due diligence investigation on the joint application made by the Town of Riverhead Community Development Agency, which owns the EPCAL property, and CAT, as prospective purchaser of the site pursuant to a November 2018 purchase agreement.
Speakers at the public information session will include attorneys representing the project from Farrell Fritz, Christopher Kent and Peter Curry.
CAT representatives scheduled to attend include CAT managing member and CEO Justin Ghermezian and Triple Five Executive Vice President Meg Blakey
Also in attendance will be CAT professional consultants Alex Badalamenti, architect, Chris Robinson, engineer, and Joe Petrocelli, contractor.
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