2014 budget, community benefit zone hearings set for Wednesday

With Town Hall closed for election day on Tuesday, the Riverhead Town Board’s first meeting of the month will be held on Wednesday afternoon, with public hearings slated on the proposed 2014 town budget and on the proposed Community Benefit zoning district that is needed for the First Baptist Church’s planned Family Community Life Center on Northville Turnpike.

The meeting starts at 2 p.m. in Town Hall.

• The $54.5 million preliminary budget that will be the subject of the public hearing calls for a 3 percent increase in spending and a 2.17 percent tax rate increase in the so-called townwide budget, which includes the three funds that all residents pay into. There are also a number of special sewer , water and garbage districts that vary by area, and those would bring total town spending up by three percent to $91.9 million, under the budget proposal.

Supervisor Sean Walter is proposing to use $3.5 million of town reserves to keep taxes down, leaving only about $3 million left in the reserve account. He says this is necessary because the town is paying $4 million in debt on the town landfill reclamation, which went over budget during the previous administration.

The proposed budget would not increase salaries for Town Board members. A final budget must be adopted by Nov. 20.

• The Community Benefit zoning district hearing is on a proposal to create an overlay zone that would allow a community center and workforce housing on land where the new zone is placed. In order to qualify for having this zone, a site would need to have 10 or more acres of land with at least 800 feet of frontage on a county or state highway, as well as public water and sewer connections.

First Baptist Church’s 13-acre campus on Northville Turnpike meets this criteria. The church is proposing a mixed-use project that would include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a 25-seat theater and media center, adult and child day care services, an indoor walking track, gymnasium, fitness center, classroom space and 132 affordable apartment units intended as “workforce housing” for the area. First Baptist has been planning the Family Community Life Center for more than 25 years, and says the income from the apartments are needed to offset the costs of the community center, which would be open to the public.

The proposed zone only allows one unit of housing per acre, unless transferred development rights from farms, or affordable housing credits from open space purchases are used. The church is hoping to receive enough affordable housing open space credits from Suffolk County to make the project feasible. The county provides the credits at no charge, unlike the farmland development right program.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone last month pledged the county’s support of the project at a gathering in Riverhead, although he didn’t specifically mention the affordable housing credits.

The Nov. 6 meeting also has a public hearing on the annual Community Development Block Grant requests, which are distributed to local charities and non-profit organization.