Town issues Thursday deadline to CAT to agree to recent proposal

Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar says the town has given Calverton Aviation & Technology until the end of business Thursday, March 3, to agree to the proposal the town presented at a Feb. 10 work session. 

A Nov. 2018 agreement between the town and CAT revolves around the potential sale of 1,643 acres of town-owned land at Enterprise Park at Calverton to CAT for $40 million. The sale has since hit roadblocks, particularly in trying to get state approval for an eight-lot subdivision. 

The Feb. 10 proposal called for the Town Board, acting as the Community Development Agency, to vote at its Feb. 15 meeting to make an application to the IDA to transfer the title of all acreage it owns at EPCAL to the IDA to facilitate the sale and transfer of the property.

“The transfer of title to the IDA will allow much greater local control of the redevelopment process and require CAT to take continuous and immediate action to ensure its financial wherewithal,” the town said in a press release. 

But the proposal was not on the agenda of the Feb. 15 vote, and has not been on an agenda since. The town also received more than 50 emails asking the board to hold off on the vote on Feb. 15. 

Ms. Aguiar said Tuesday that if the deal is not agreed upon on March 3, the Town Board will go into an executive session to determine its next step.

“I’m not going to be negotiating the deal in the newspapers,” CAT’s attorney, Chris Kent, said Tuesday. “I received a draft from the town and we are negotiating the final details.”