Riverhead Town Board will hold second ‘pattern book’ meeting on downtown

The Riverhead Town Board will hold a second community forum on the “pattern book” for the design of the downtown on Thursday, Feb. 13.

The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the the Riverhead Senior Center, 60 Shade Tree Lane Aquebogue.

Residents are invited to participate, and the consultant on the downtown project, Urban Design Associates, will present his preliminary design guideline ideas based upon the community input gathered from the first public forum held in November. The designers will make a presentation followed by questions and answers at the Feb. 13 meeting. 

In addition, the town currently has a survey on its website seeking further community input regarding downtown. That can be found at this link: surveymonkey.com/r/DowntownRiverheadPB

The survey will be online until Feb. 14 and responses will remain anonymous, according to officials.   

Participants from the November forum are asked to attend, as well as interested community members. The goal of these meetings is to hear from as many residents as possible, town officials said.

“I urge all residents to participate in this important community event,” Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said in a release. “Everyone’s opinion and ideas are welcomed. I look forward to continuing to work with Barry Long (of UDA) to ensure this effort comes to a productive conclusion for Riverhead. I met with Mr. Long in November and provided him with a list of concepts which have been incorporated.”

“We need to effectively breathe life into our Riverhead downtown area,” said councilwoman Catherine Kent, who is the board’s liason to the Downtown Revitalization Committee. “Downtown should be a place where residents from all our hamlets can congregate and have shared experiences.”