Government

Update: Blue River Estates hearing postponed

 (Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Sendlewski)
A rendering of Blue River Estates (File photo courtesy of Jeffrey Sendlewski)

UPDATE: The public hearing on Blue River Estates that was scheduled for tonight’s Riverhead Town Planning Board meeting has been postponed due to errors in posting the meeting notices on adjacent properties, officials say.

The meeting will likely be rescheduled for a future meeting.

Blue River Estates is a $10 million, five-story, 48-unit apartment complex proposed by Brooklyn-based Tricon Development where the Long Island Science Center is currently located..

The plan includes 36 two-bedroom units and 12 one-bedroom units, as well as a ground-floor parking area with one parking space per unit, architect Martin Sendlewski has said.

The building is located within the town’s public parking district and isn’t required to provide onsite parking because tenants would be allowed to use the town’s parking lots, Mr. Sendlewski said, but the developers have decided to include parking plans in order to make the project more attractive.

“We feel it’s a benefit to the town, even though we’re not required to provide parking,” Mr. Sendlewski said during a recent Planning Board meeting. “It’s very good for marketing, too.”

Overflow parking would be located in the town lots, he said.

An indoor pool and gym is also planned for the apartment’s upper floors, Mr. Sendlewski added.

Water flooded the area nearly nine feet above sea level during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, he said, and the ground floor of the project is expected to be built at 10 feet above sea level. The development will also install drainage to prevent rainwater from going into the adjacent Peconic River, Mr. Sendlewski said.

The planning board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the preliminary site plan at 7 p.m.

The Science Center is in contract to purchase the former West Marine building on 101 East Main Street, which has been vacant for several years. That purchase is contingent on the Blue River Estates sale moving forward.

Blue River Estates is the third large apartment complex proposed for downtown Riverhead.

Summerwind Square on Peconic Avenue opened last summer with 52 affordable apartments. The owner of the former Woolworth space on East Main Street is building 18 apartments on the second floor there, with a gym and retail stores on the first floor.

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