Riverhead Town is one step closer to completing its comprehensive plan update.
The Town Board during a special meeting Thursday set a May 20 hearing on the draft plan, as well as on a draft environmental impact statement assessing its recommendations. The hearings will be held jointly at Riverhead Town Hall at 6 p.m..
The board also authorized publication of a notice of completion for the draft environmental impact statement, as required by state law.
“This is a huge milestone today. This is really, really big,” Supervisor Tim Hubbard said. “We’ve got a ton of information before us and it’s been put together quite well. I’m very pleased with the work of BFJ and everybody involved. I think this is coming together really nice.”
A comprehensive plan is a long-range, all-encompassing blueprint for the future of a municipality, guiding it on a wide range of issues, the most impactful of those being how land should be used and what development should be allowed or prohibited, incentivized and discouraged. It includes recommendations for changes to the town’s current zoning codes that can be enacted by the Town Board after the plan is adopted.
You can download and read the draft comprehensive plan and DGEIS on the town’s comprehensive plan update website.
The new plan will replace the existing comprehensive plan, which was adopted by the Town Board in 2003. The update has been a long time in the making, with the Town Board first approving a contract to develop the update with consultants AKRF in 2019. After more than two years of what town officials said was slow progress, the Town Board canceled the contract with AKRF and hired a second firm, BFJ, to take the plan over the finish line.
In February, BFJ released draft chapters of the plan for public review. After reviewing comments from residents, stakeholders and members of the town comp plan update steering committee, BFJ updated the chapters and compiled the draft plan deemed complete by the Town Board Thursday.
Filing of the notice of completion with the regional office of the State Department of Environmental Conservation and publication of the notice in the DEC’s Environmental Notice Bulletin begins a mandatory 30-day comment period. A public hearing may be held during that 30-day period. State regulations require the public review period to remain open for 10 days after the hearing is closed, for the receipt of written comments on the impact statement.
After the conclusion of the 30-day review period, the town must prepare a final impact statement which must respond to comments made during the review period.
The town will respond to “relevant environmental comments” in the final impact statement, BFJ principal Sarah Yackel told the Town Board Thursday. BFJ expects to have a final impact statement ready for acceptance by the Town Board on July 2.
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.
