Warehouse

In a lengthy and sometimes contentious meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Riverhead Town Board took actions on a number of items that have been before town officials for months, sometimes longer, drawing fire from critics.

Featured letter: Voting party-line this year may very well destroy the make-up of Riverhead. The present council has overwhelmingly been in favor of warehouses and the EPCAL sale.

The public is invited to an informational meeting about warehouses and logistics centers tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Riley Avenue Elementary School in Calverton, hosted by the Greater Calverton Civic Association.

The State DOT plans to improve the Rt. 25 Edwards Avenue intersection by widening it and adding exclusive left-turn lanes at all approaches. But the state recently pushed back the start date for the project to next year, with anticipated completion in 2025.

Big developers know they can have their way in Riverhead, promising jobs that won’t go to town residents and taxes we’ll never see. What do we actually get? More traffic, more light pollution, more crime, more demands on our town employees and first responder resources. Letter from Mark Gajowski, Calverton

Guest column: Make no mistake. This is no ordinary warehouse. This is a mega-warehouse, the kind that stretches for acres and dwarfs everything in its surroundings. Some may see it as a sign of progress and economic growth. I see it as a harbinger of doom for local residents.

Riverhead is assessing potential impacts of the proposed Riverhead Logistics Center, a 15-acre 'high-cube' warehouse, as if it’s a traditional storage facility, as opposed to a potential e-commerce fulfillment center — a dreadful mistake that could have irreversible consequences.

The idea is to have an interactive forum where residents can ask questions about the proposed new uses, which Riverhead Planning Board Vie Chairperson Ed Densieski points out were not studied in the town’s existing comprehensive plan.

Riverhead planners are using traffic data for a traditional warehouse to analyze NorthPoint's projected traffic impacts on local roads. Residents object, arguing the standard underestimates traffic for fulfillment centers, but the town's traffic consultants defend their analysis.

Eastern Fence is proposing a 60,000-square-foot building on Scott Avenue where it will fabricate PVC fencing using material manufactured at its existing facility in the park. Hildreth Real Estate Advisors is proposing a 70,000-square-foot warehouse on an adjacent site.