EPCAL study is in; board to set public hearing tomorrow

Riverhead Town is now one step closer to being able to sell individual lots at the Enterprise Park at Calverton.

The town has received a draft environmental impact study for its EPCAL reuse plan — a plan that seeks to subdivide the former Navy site into 50 lots and recommends a mix of business, residential and light industrial uses on about 600 acres of town-owned land.

The reuse plan is an attempt to replace the jobs that were lost when Grumman Corporation vacated the site in the mid-1990s.

The town paid nearly $450,000 for the study in 2011, and earlier this year approved over $160,000 in additional expenses attributed largely to negotiations with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Town Board plans to hold a special meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow to schedule a Sept. 3 public hearing at 7 p.m. on the DEIS, according to Supervisor Sean Walter.

He expects the study to become finalized by the end of the year and for the 50-lot industrial subdivision the town is proposing at EPCAL to be approved by the town Planning Board shortly after.

The town cannot sell individual lots at EPCAL until they are formally subdivided. It also will need state Department of Environmental Conservation approval for its EPCAL reuse plan, since part of it is located within the boundaries of the state’s Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act, which places restrictions on development near the Peconic River, Mr. Walter said.