Riverside revitalization

A company led by builder Paul Pawlowski of Mattituck has submitted plans to demolish the long-vacant old diner and construct an 8,000-square-foot, two-story building that will house medical offices and workforce apartments.

County and town officials were joined by civic leaders and community members for a ceremonial groundbreaking at the traffic circle Tuesday morning.

Workers have begun relocating utility lines in the Riverside traffic circle, where groundbreaking on the $4 million reconstruction project will take place at the end of this month, according to County Legislator Bridget Fleming.

The legislature also approved $4 million in bonding to fund the construction project, which officials and residents hail as a crucial component of revitalization in the Riverside hamlet.

Though the subject of the public hearing was a generic environmental impact statement on a revitalization plan, Riverside-Flanders residents, bearing posters depicting derelict buildings and complaining of drugs, prostitution and crime, pleaded with the Southampton Town Board for action.

Impacts of a developer’s plans for the hamlet of Riverside will be aired tomorrow night at a public hearing at Phillips Avenue Elementary School. Renaissance...

Riverside threw itself a little party yesterday. It was the first outdoor event held in the struggling hamlet in a very long time — maybe even the first one ever. Story and photos.

This is where the rubber meets the road. The ambitious revitalization plan known as Riverside Rediscovered, more than a year in the making, must now be incorporated into law so that the vision laid out by planners and embraced by the community can become reality.

County Executive Steve Bellone had sought to delay funding for the reconstruction project to 2018, a move that drew fire from local elected officials, community activists and residents.

County Executive Steve Bellone's capital plan put off reconstruction of the Route 24 traffic circle in Riverside till 2018, angering assemblyman. Legislator Jay Schneiderman vows a fight.