Schools

Civic Group Opposes Plan To Move Bus Barn To Riverside

Civic leaders feel the move would place an unfair tax burden on Riverside residents.

Civic leaders in the Riverside area are raising their voices against the possibility of the Riverhead Central School District relocating a bus barn to the area.

Members of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association drafted a letter to Riverhead School Superintendent Nancy Carney, expressing opposition to the idea of relocating the bus barn and bus storage to Riverside.

According to FRNCA president Brad Bender, the civic organization, as well as the Riverside Revitalization and Community Corporation have been working for years to revitalize the hamlet, increase the tax base, create new jobs, and alleviate severely blighted areas.

"Southampton Town officials as well as our state elected officials are aware of our opposition to any development that is not coupled with commercial or other non tax-exempt uses," Bender wrote in the letter to Carney. "For uses deemed beneficial by the Riverside community, we ask that town and county approval of tax-exempt developments be conditioned on the requirement of payments in lieu 
of taxes, or PILOTS, to our special assessment and school districts. For an undesirable use such as the 'bus barn,' we ask that the town and county refuse to sell any public lands or otherwise cooperate with the school district."

Bender said Flanders, Riverside and Northampton residents are "painfully aware," that the Southampton portion of the Riverhead Central School District "bears one of the highest proportional school tax burdens. And as a largely moderate to low-income area, that tax burden will only worsen if the district removes more land from our tax rolls."

Relocating the bus barn, Bender said, would increase the tax burden in Southampton and mean a "significant" property tax loss to the FRNCA hamlets.
"We request that you consider offering to make PILOT payments equal to what a commercial bus operator would pay for such a facility. An equitable PILOT would at least remove the tax issue from the discussion," he wrote.

Other concerns in siting the facility in Riverside include environmental issues and pollution, as well as traffic issues, Bender said.

"Lastly, we are particularly offended by the school board's effort to mask the dumping of this undesirable land use into a perceived politically and economically weak community -- presenting it as a ballot proposal for athletic fields," Bender wrote. "The district may want to create new athletic fields but dumping the bus barn in our community is unacceptable to residents of the Riverside area."
He added, "Riverside is simply the wrong place for the proposed facility. Please consider other more suitable locations for the new bus barn and vehicle storage lot."

Riverhead Board of Education President Ann Cotten-DeGrasse said should the bus barn be moved, the plan would be to utilize the land for an educational complex that would include sports fields.

"I think if they feel that strongly about it, they should come to the school board and make their concerns known," she said. "We've been talking about this for months and no one has said anything. It's not like this just sprung up over the past two weeks."

As for Bender's PILOT suggestion, Cotton-Degrasse asked, "We should pay a PILOT on land the school district already owns?"

If the bus barn is moved, she said, the new facility will be sited behind the Phillips Avenue school. The only property that the school district would need to purchase would be a parcel that allows for easement between the school and an industrial park that was never developed in Riverside; the land would be purchased from a private owner.

The proposal residents will vote on, on May 21, Cotton-DeGrasse said, would allow the board of education to establish a savings account, so that after the sale of the Tuthills Lane land is complete, and the Riverside land purchased, any additional funds would be put in the account; once $10 million is amassed, the board could tear down the existing bus barn and site a smaller facility in Riverside.

The location was chosen, she said, because of traffic concerns. "We looked at several other parcels and our main concern is trying to get the buses out," she said. "We can't tie up, for example, Route 58."

In May, the Riverhead Board of Education voted unanimously  to sell the development rights on 25 acres of Aquebogue land to Suffolk County for $1.325 million. The land, located on Tuthills Lane in Aquebogue near the Aquebogue Elementary School, will be preserved as farmland under the Suffolk County New Drinking Water Protection Program, should the county approve the purchase.

After the vote, Cotten-DeGrasse said the district had opted to hold two acres of the 27 acre parcel back from the sale. That way, she said, if a farmer wishes to purchase the land, they would have room to erect a farmhouse."If we sold the whole 27 acres, he couldn't build a barn," she said.

A new committee was being formed to evaluate what to do with proceeds from the sale, Cotten-DeGrasse said; one option is to relocate the bus garage to a new site and make the current school property only an educational complex.

The thought was discussed when the district bonded last year, but in the end, the BOE held off.

"Ideally, we would like to move the garage off into another location," Cotten-DeGrasse said.

Carney did not respond to numerous requests for comment.


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