Riverhead supervisor makes pitch to Southampton Town: Let’s partner to revise Riverside redevelopment plan

Riverhead Town officials returned to Southampton Town Hall this week to again ask officials in the neighboring town to reconsider aspects of its adopted plan for the redevelopment and revitalization of the Riverside hamlet. 

The Southampton Town Board held a public hearing Tuesday on the draft generic environmental impact statement for its proposed sewer district and treatment facility, which are essential to the redevelopment of the Riverside hamlet. 

A zoning overlay district adopted by Southampton in 2015, based on the Riverside revitalization plan, allows for the development of high-density multifamily mixed-use apartment buildings in Riverside, in the area of the Riverside traffic circle. Potential buildout under the overlay zoning would allow a maximum of 2,300 dwelling units.

Riverhead officials, alarmed by the potential density of future development in Riverside, spoke out at a Southampton Town Board hearing last month to urge Southampton officials to reconsider the plan and modify the zoning in Riverside.

MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Town, school district officials raise concerns about Riverside redevelopment plan

Supervisor Tim Hubbard, accompanied by Planning, Economic Development and Community Development Director Dawn Thomas and environmental consultant Jeff Seaman, told the Southampton Town Board that Riverhead Town wants to work with Southampton on revising its Riverside plans.  He offered Riverhead Town’s partnership “to fund a study whose purpose would be to review the current market and demographics for incorporation into the plan.”  Southampton Town should revise its zoning for Riverside to require the development of diverse housing stock rather than exclusively “affordable” rentals. 

“We strongly urge the Town Board to consider a mix of senior housing, which won’t impact our schools and parks as much, ownership units, single-family homes, market-rate rentals, workforce rentals and affordable rentals,” Hubbard said. “Riverhead addressed this problem by providing housing of all types for people of all types,” he said.

“Riverhead is on a firm path to revitalization in downtown and downtown Riverhead that will provide economic development diversity on all levels and removal of barriers for all. We believe that Riverside should be redeveloped using the same methodology,” Hubbard told the board.

He said Riverhead Town has three requests: (1) have the two towns’ planning teams work together to ensure that any Riverside development does not result in “inverse red-lining,” which he described as “putting all affordable housing in an already-highly segregated location”;  (2) embark on an inter-municipal effort to review the Riverside revitalization plan; and (3) have the boundaries of the Riverside sewer district take in the Suffolk County facilities in Riverside — the county jail, criminal court building and the county center — which since 1969 have had wastewater treated at the Riverhead sewage treatment plant.

The Riverhead Sewer District needs to free up capacity in its treatment plant so that it can serve properties on West Main Street where antiquated and failing septic systems are polluting the Peconic River, the supervisor said.

“We do not have any CPF [Community Preservation Fund] funding to expand our district, so getting back that capacity is crucial for us,” Hubbard said.

The Riverhead facility must retain the capacity to treat that volume of wastewater flow, he said. The Riverhead sewage treatment plant has a permitted capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day and currently handles about 1.05 million gallons, Riverhead Sewer District Superintendent Michael Reichel said in a phone interview.

An analysis by engineers for the Riverhead Sewer District states that total wastewater volume from the county facilities in Riverside are capable of producing an estimated 169,400 gallons per day of wastewater, based on county health department standards for calculating wastewater flow, he said. The Riverhead plant must set aside that capacity for the county facilities, which limits capacity for growth within the town sewer district, he said. The Riverhead Sewer District takes in most of the downtown central business district, where development underway and in planning stages is dependent on sewage treatment capacity.

Riverhead environmental consultant Jeff Seaman expanded on Riverhead’s request to have the Riverside Sewer District take in the county’s facilities in Riverside.

Seaman explained that the town, which is currently updating its comprehensive plan, is looking to create a development rights “sending” area to preserve farmland north of Sound Avenue and looking to create a new development rights “receiving area” along West Main Street. To make that work, Seaman said, sewer hookups are essential and they can’t happen without Riverhead reclaiming the treatment capacity currently used to treat wastewater from the county’s facilities.

The county facilities would be “much closer” to the proposed location of the Riverside treatment facility than the Riverhead treatment facility, which is more than 2 ½ miles away, Seaman said. 

The county facilities are outside Riverhead’s district and “really should be inside your district,” Seaman told board members. 

Including the county facilities in the Riverside sewer district would also provide a financial benefit to the district, because it would help the new sewer district offset residential user fees, Seaman said.

Seaman said including the county facilities in the Riverside district would not adversely impact the Riverside treatment plant’s available capacity to handle the proposed new development.

Riverhead Town and Suffolk County are currently in court over the out-of-district rates sought by the town from the county to treat waste from the Riverside facilities. The most recent written agreement between the county and the town sewer district, signed in 1997, expired Dec. 31, 2017. 

The county sued Riverhead Town in 2021, arguing that the town’s calculation of the sewer rates it seeks to charge the county is based upon “an arbitrary, mythical and hypothetical ‘design flow’ of wastewater usage rather than actual wastewater volume.” In addition, according to the county’s lawsuit, the town is attempting to impose an “illegal surcharge” on the county, which is intended to have the county “subsidize” an “operating deficit” in the town district. The county argues that the town is looking to penalize the county to the tune of about $300,000 per year,  and the county has refused to pay the sewer rates and surcharges sought by the town. The lawsuit remains pending. 

MORE COVERAGE: County sues Riverhead over sewer rate dispute

The Southampton Town Board adjourned the hearing on the Riverside sewer district environmental impact statement to Feb. 13, when it will open a hearing on the proposed map and plan for the new sewer district. The map and plan set the boundaries for the proposed district.

Hubbard said in an interview today he thought Southampton Town Board members were receptive to Riverhead Town’s requests.

A hearing before the State Central Pine Barrens Commission is slated for next month also. The proposed sewage treatment facility is located in the pine barrens and the commission’s approval of the location, land clearing, and use is required for the project to move forward. The supervisors of the towns of Riverhead, Southampton and Brookhaven have seats on the five-member commission, along with the county executive and a representative of Region I of the State Department of Environmental Conservation. The meetings rotate among the town halls of the three towns. The February meeting, scheduled for Feb. 21 is scheduled to take place at Riverhead Town Hall at 2 p.m.