Wading River gets its chance Saturday morning.
Riverhead town's planning consultants, BFJ Planning, will host a public workshop session Saturday from 10 a.m. until 12 noon on the topic of commercial zoning along the Route 25A corridor. The workshop will take place at St. John the Baptist Church on North Country Road.
BFJ is conducting a study for the Town of Riverhead on zoning in the corridor, with an eye toward updating the town's comprehensive land use plan.
In a presentation of the planners' preliminary findings to the Town Board last month, BFJ principal Frank Fish said the consultants were looking at eliminating about 24 acres of existing retail zoning along Route 25Ato preserve the character of that hamlet.
Property along Route 25A, east of the CVS pharmacy on the south side and east of the former ice cream store on the north, should be rezoned to eliminate new retail development, Fish said.
The retail zoning would be replaced with the multifamily residential professional office zoning.
Residents are invited to weigh in with their thoughts on future land use in the corridor.
“An essential part of corridor studies is public input,” Dominique Mendez, president of the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, said in a press release issued Thursday.
Mendez had been at odds with Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter over whether a public session called for by the consultants' contract was still due and owing or whether an October meeting with civic groups fulfilled the consultants' obligations.
The RNPC has been calling for a moratorium on new commercial development in the corridor pending the completion of a comprehensive plan update. The Town Board has rejected the demand. A recent Planning Board approval of a commercial site plan for a retail complex on the corner of Sound Avenue and Route 25A drew an immediate lawsuit from RNPC.
“We’re just looking for zoning that makes sense for our rural hamlet,” said Sid Bail, president of the Wading River Civic Association, a member organization of the RNPC.