Politics & Government

Town Board Notes: Focus Groups to be Held on Wading River Development

Also, Town Supervisor Sean Walter proposed an EPCAL board to speed up development of the property at the Town Board's work session on Thursday.

A series of focus group sessions will be held as part of the Route 25A corridor study that BFJ Planning Associates is conducting for the town, according to the Town Board.

The findings that come out of the sessions, Supervisor Walter said Thursday, would then be presented at a public hearing, the date of which has not been determined.

One focus group will be held for representatives of businesses in Wading River on Oct. 13; another session well be for civic associations and civic leaders on Oct. 24.

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The corridor study became the subject of a until after the BJF study has been completed.

EPCAL approval board proposed

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Supervisor Walter said he will soon propose state legislation by working with local representatives in Albany to create a board of overseers that could speed up the approval and denial process for projects proposed for Enterprise Park at Calverton.

The board Walter said he has in mind would include four town officials, along with representatives from the governor’s office, the county executive’s office and the Brookhaven Town supervisor’s office.

The consulting firm VHB, hired by the town earlier this year, is now tocome up with, among other things, new zoning codes that will determine what may and may not be built at the former Grumman defense compound.

Once new zoning is approved, the board would be empowered to issue what Walter described as “an umbrella permit,” provided the project that was proposed conformed to new zoning requirements. The board, he said, would be required to either issue such a permit or disallow it within 75 days of a site plan’s submission.

“It would mean that the applicant wouldn’t have to make separate applications to the county health department, the Pines Barrens Commission or the Department of Environmental Conservation,” Walter said.


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