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Recap: Mixed-use development proposed for Railroad Avenue

Developers Ben Wauford and Pamela Mikus discuss a proposed 153-unit, five-story development on Railroad Ave. Photo by Tim Gannon

A mixed-use development proposed for the town-owned parking lot on Railroad Avenue was discussed at Thursday’s Riverhead Town Board work session.

Pamela Mikus of Premiant Development and Ben Wauford of Cooper Carry are proposing a five-story, 153-unit development and plans to leave the existing 237 parking spaces on the ground floor as-is.

The proposal also includes building 156 parking spaces of “structured” parking on the second floor and a total of 153 apartments on the proposed third, fourth and fifth floors. There would also be 2,500-square feet of retail on the ground level.

The town acquired much of the land in the 1990s through condemnation in order to provide parking for the adjacent county courts. At that time, the town offered to provide court parking in exchange for the county to agree to build additional court rooms in Riverhead instead of Central Islip.

Supervisor Sean Walter questioned if the town needs to issue a request for proposals in order to see if other developers might want to build on that same land. He said the town will also have to get feedback from the court system.

• The board also discussed a plan to remove bunker fish from the Peconic Bay in hopes of preventing another large fish kill. There are already thousands of bunker fish in the Peconic now. The town and the state DEC would pay fishermen four cents a pound to remove the bunker, under the proposal. Fishermen hired by the DEC have already removed over 150,000 pounds of bunker fish since Monday, Mr. Walter said.

Top photo: Architect Ben Wauford and developer Pamela Mikus discuss a proposed 153-unit, five-story development on Railroad Ave. (Credit: Tim Gannon)

To read a recap of News-Review reporter Tim Gannon’s live blog of the meeting, click below and scroll down for the full media agenda.

Live Blog Riverhead Town Board work session 05-12-2016

May_12,_2016_-_Agenda by Timesreview