Letter: Wading River Corridor Study is Still Flawed

Something very special happened on Saturday, Feb. 4 in Wading River. Hundreds of area residents gave up a few precious weekend hours to come to a community meeting about the development along 25A in Wading River. The prevailing sentiment was that Wading River is a special place and we don’t want to see it turned into what most of us moved away from. It was also perfectly clear that the vast majority of people did not want more shopping centers and that they wanted to keep as much open space as possible.

And, yes, that could actually make a difference in the long run because the Planners said they will change their recommendations based on this feedback: feedback that they would never have had if this workshop had been eliminated, as it almost was! So thanks to all those who not only attended this meeting, but who participated in the Save Wading River campaign and aided in the effort to have this meeting reinstated in the first place!

Unfortunately, the recommendations were not exactly what they might have first appeared to be.

One of the most significant shifts in the recommendations, the removal of the split zoning on four key parcels, would effectively allow 44 percent more land to be developed within those properties next to and across from the CVS pharmacy. That translates into approximately 13 additional 10,000-sq.-ft. one-story office buildings or approximately 72 additional multi-family residential units compared to BFJ’s preliminary recommendations presented at a Town Board work session on Feb. 4. (See attached Chart A.) Saturday’s version of the plan would also bring that development closer to, and within clear sight of, Wading River’s historic district on a quaint stretch of North Country Road.

If you attended or watched the video of Saturday’s public workshop, you might have been left the impression that this plan wouldn’t allow any more stores in Wading River, except possibly in the Knightland project. Wrong! Although the plan, right now, does suggest the elimination of 24.5 acres of Business Country Rural (BCR) retail zoning (which is good), it still leaves over 18 acres of BCR zoning in the corridor. This amounts to approximately 120,000 sq. ft. or 12 CVS-sized buildings filled with stores, restaurants and banks. But you didn’t see that on any slides.

So here’s a brief recap of the Planners recommendations as of Saturday: (See attached Chart B.)

• 24.5 acres that were zoned BCR (allowing retail) would be rezoned to MRP to allow only multi-family homes and professional offices. This would prohibit the Central Square* and the No. Country Plaza shopping centers, though if the Town approves Central Square soon that may not matter.
• BFJ said some of this multifamily might be age restricted or at least constructed with few enough bedrooms to generate few school-age children in the Shoreham-Wading River school district. (Yet without square-footage maximums and age-restriction requirements, there’s nothing to compel any  developer to build a single senior condo and we have every reason to believe plenty of families with children will live in these units!)
• 17.5 acres that are zoned 1- and 2-acre single-family residential (and would have almost definitely remained undeveloped) would now be rezoned MRP. That would mean just shy of 50% more commercial and/or residential development where it wouldn’t have otherwise gone: bye, bye open space.
• And over 18 acres would still remain BCR and would allow up to 124,000 sq. ft. of retail (including the Knightland mall and Venezia shopping center) — or considerably more with second stories. That’s still an awful lot for such a small town.
• There was very little in the recommendations that seemed to preserve any open space, which was clearly an area of concern for most residents.
• The recommendations opened the possibility of rental apartments (in the fine print but we don’t remember it being discussed). Only owner-occupied condos are currently allowed in the existing MRP zone, NO rental apartments. 

And here are a few of the things we think need to be done:  

• Retain the split zoning and require additional open space set asides to address the community’s express desire for open space and limited development.
• Require all multi-family units to be age restricted and limit the size of each unit to ensure this development is a tax positive to the SWR school district — and to keep inappropriately large homes from being erected.
• Don’t allow rentals, require large treed buffers with evergreens to screen all residences, and no parking lots or stockade fences close to the street.

So we submitted our feedback to BFJ Planning, who is in the process of revising their recommendations again. And our next opportunity to see where the plan is heading now is Wednesday, February 22, at Riverhead Town Hall. From 6pm to 7pm, BFJ will hold an open house to display their revised (and hopefully improved!) recommendations and discuss them one-on-one with the people. An abbreviated public presentation to the Town Board will start at 7 pm and either immediately or shortly thereafter, the public will be able to address the board from the podium with its comments and concerns.

Please come, see for yourselves how the planners responded to the public outcry and voice your own opinions and ideas while there’s still time to change the future of Wading River.

- Dominique Mendez, President, Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition