Downtown revitalization

New this spring in Downtown Riverhead: A Peconic River cleanup sponsored by Riverhead Rotary, an outdoor job fair, an expanded Shakespeare in the Park moving to Grangebel and a contest to create new art on downtown fire hydrants.

The development of the town square advanced this week with the hiring of a landscape architect and its team of consultants to design the town square and streetscape improvements and prepare the documents needed for permitting and bidding.

Eight new townhouse apartments are planned for the East Second Street site of a historic home destroyed in a 2021 fire that killed five people.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard offered Southampton officials Riverhead’s help to revise its Riverside development plans, including partnering on a market and demographic study. He also asked that the proposed Riverside sewer district take in the county facilities there.

The developer of a proposed 165-unit apartment complex on East Main Street made its pitch for tax exemptions from the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency at a public hearing Monday night at Riverhead Town Hall.

Riverhead's Economic Development and Planning Administrator Dawn Thomas called on the Town of Southampton to reopen review of the Riverside Revitalization Action Plan, adopted in 2015.

The new 2-year contract approved Tuesday for Police Chief David Hegermiller requires the chief to develop a plan to operate a downtown substation and provide a targeted downtown policing plan addressing 'quality of life' crimes.

Supervisor Yvette Aguiar criticized the Long Island Science Center's president this week, alleging he delayed the development of a new museum on East Main Street and secretly trying to sell the property.

Riverhead received a $500,000 award for the planned adaptive playground on the riverfront and a $30,000 award to fund a feasibility study for a potential sports complex at the Calverton Enterprise Park.

The proposed five-story, mixed-use apartment building on West Main Street just west of Court Street will provide 133 market-rate apartments and 5,100-square-feet of ground-floor retail space on a 1.9-acre property.