The review and approval of a proposal to build a 412,000-square-foot industrial building on a 30-acre site on Middle Country Road in Calverton stalled at the Riverhead Planning Board last week after the board’s former chairperson lodged a forceful complaint about the process being followed.
The Planning Board tabled a resolution on its agenda to accept a key document in the environmental review process that would have teed up the HK Ventures development plan for final approvals.
Jamesport resident Barbara Blass, longtime Planning Board member and its former chairperson, faulted the Final Environmental Impact Statement the Planning Board was poised to accept at its Aug. 2 meeting for “failing to address potential cumulative impacts,” as required by the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The law requires the FEIS to address potential impacts of the proposed action taken together with “other past, present or reasonably foreseeable future actions,” including impacts of other actions that affect the same resource, Blass told the board.
There are currently three major proposals for development of nearly 2 million square feet of new industrial space in the Calverton hamlet, in addition to the 1 million square feet called for in phase one of the Calverton Aviation & Technology development plan for the former Grumman site, Blass told the Planning Board last week.
These multiple actions all impact the same resources, she said: “air, water, ag soils, traffic, economic resources of the town, energy and community character,” Blass said.
“One could say our tractors are being replaced by tractor-trailers,” she said.
“There are significant short- and long-term impacts on the Riverhead Water District from its proposed expansion, the uncertainty of any potential DEC approvals, the timing of any new infrastructure and the competing demands for water by Riverhead Town residents who are in desperate need of clean water,” Blass said.
The Planning Board cannot lawfully assess the impacts of the pending proposals independently of one another, Blass told the board.
Pending industrial development proposals in Calverton
HK Ventures is one of several major commercial/industrial proposals clustered in the Calverton hamlet, in addition to whatever industrial buildout eventually comes at the former Northrop Grumman site, where the town is in contract to sell 1,644 acres of industrially zoned land. The town’s contract with Triple Five affiliate Calverton Aviation & Technology calls for the phase-one buildout of at least 1 million square feet of commercial/industrial space at the site.
The HK Ventures plan is to build a 412,629 square-foot commercial/industrial complex consisting of eight buildings ranging in size from approximately 44,000 to 57,000 square feet, plus a 1,500-square-foot commissary building, on the south side of Middle Country Road, just east of Fresh Pond Avenue, adjacent to the Sky Materials sand mine/Tractor Supply site.
The other currently pending commercial/industrial proposals in the Calverton hamlet singled out by Blass include:
Ostad/Calverton Industrial Subdivision. This is a proposal to subdivide a 131-acre site further east on Middle Country Road, near the intersection with Manor Road. The site, adjacent to the Splish Splash Water Park on its east, would be subdivided into three proposed industrial use building lots (19.48± acres, 41.60± acres and 44.74± acres). The lots would be improved with buildings of as-yet undetermined size and uses.
The Riverhead Logistics Center. This proposal by NorthPoint Development is a 641,000-square-foot warehouse building on an approximately 40-acre site on the west end of Middle Road, at the terminus of Manor Road, in Calverton.
All are Type I actions under SEQRA, requiring the preparation of an environmental impact statement, Blass said.
“They all require expansion of the Riverhead Water District and two involve expansion of the Riverhead Sewer District,” she said. “They all need major roadway improvements, they all are seeking IDA benefits, and they all have similar environmental impacts, including air emissions, loss of agricultural soils and vegetation clearing,” Blass continued.
“Their cumulative effects are all being absorbed within the hamlet of Calverton, which is within a DEC Designated Potential Environmental Justice Area,” Blass said.
“You have provided no justification for the independent review of these projects which the law allows under certain, very specific circumstances,” she said. “These projects have to be evaluated together and their impacts assessed cumulatively.”
Blass also complained that while the FEIS states the document was filed May 25 and was available for public inspection in the town clerk’s office, on the town website and at the Riverhead library, it was available to the public in its entirety only yesterday, Aug. 3.”
Blass said she had inquired with Building and Planning Administrator Jefferson Murphree about the status of the FEIS beginning June 2, after a planning board meeting, because it was nearly year since the hearing on the draft environmental impact statement. Murphree asked Planner Greg Bergman who responded that the department had just recently received it, Blass told the board.
“On June 29, 2022, I emailed Mr. Murphree and Mr. Bergman again inquiring about the availability of the document for public review,” she said. “I received no response.”
In mid-July, Blass said, she went to the town clerk’s office to ask to see a copy of the FEIS and was told they had nothing on file.
The document was posted on the town website the day before the hearing, Blass said.
The link to the FEIS is posted under the “Hot Topics” tab on the homepage of the town website. It is not posted with other documents pertaining to the HK Ventures on the Planning Department’s page on the town website.
“Who made the decision to sit on this document for two-and-a-half months and why?” Blass asked. “The public was denied an opportunity to thoroughly examine this FEIS. This is grossly contrary to the spirit and intent of SEQRA which is a public participatory process not some exclusive interaction between the developer and the planning department,” she said.
In response to Blass’ comments, Planner Greg Bergman told the Planning Board SEQRA does not require a public comment period.
The Planning Board voted 3-1 to table the resolution accepting the document as complete, with Vice Chairperson Ed Densieski dissenting.
There are other warehouse/storage plans filed for industrially zoned land in Calverton, in addition to those three proposals:
Calverton Distribution. The owner of the existing PODS storage facility on Middle Country Road east of Edwards Avenue is seeking to double its size with a 45,212-square-foot addition.
JPD Calverton. This is a proposal to construct 74,650 square feet of new warehouse space and 127,415 square feet of outdoor storage on a roughly 29-acre site already improved with a 139,806-square foot warehouse building at 4195 Middle Country Road in Calverton. The site is located on the south side of the road, east of the HK Ventures site.
U-Haul of Calverton. This is a proposal for storage and warehouse buildings on an 8.8 acre site at the northeast corner of Middle Country Road and Manor Road, opposite the entrance to Splish Splash Water Park.
Applicant Amerco Real Estate of Phoenix, Arizona seeks to build a three-story 39,000-square-foot self-storage facility, and a one-story 35,509-square-foot warehouse. The three-story self-storage facility, providing a gross floor area of 117,114 square feet on its three floors will be on the south end of the site, fronting Middle Country Road with the one-story warehouse situated behind it, on the north end of the property.
The site is owned by RGR Ventures of Riverhead and is part of a four-lot industrial subdivision previously approved by the Planning Board.
The Calverton Civic Association asked the Town Board to enact a short-term moratorium on industrial development in the Calverton hamlet to allow the town to complete its comprehensive plan update and evaluate the existing industrial zoning in the hamlet. The Town Board declined.
The comprehensive plan update is now stalled. After long delays, the Town Board terminated the town’s contract with planning consultants AKRF, hired by the town to undertake the update. Murphree is overseeing the vetting of prospective planning consulting firms to complete the comprehensive plan update.
“It’s unfortunate to have to rely upon the outdated 2003 plan in evaluating these significant proposals,” Blass said after the meeting.
Editor’s note: This story has been amended to correct an error in the report of the Planning Board vote on the motion to table the HK Ventures resolution.
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