Public hearing on warehouse project ends
The Riverhead Planning Board officially closed the public hearing last Thursday on HK Ventures LLC, a proposed 412,659-square-foot industrial warehouse application that was first submitted Feb. 3, 2020.
The project is located on 30 acres on the south side of Route 25, across from Fresh Pond Avenue in Calverton. The site, east of Splish Splash, is currently vacant.
The applicant and its representatives have said the project will involve a new traffic signal on Route 25 and will constitute less development than the property’s current zoning allows.
The applicants say that HK Ventures is the type of warehouse use that’s lacking on the East End. But residents have consistently argued that the project is too large and will have a negative impact on traffic.
Raymond Ankrum, superintendent of the Riverhead Charter School in Calverton, voiced concern about the potential for added traffic on Route 25 in front of the school, where the state has set a 55 mph speed limit.. He said this a great concern for parents.
“Any additional amount of traffic in that area is going to be a nightmare for our school,” he said.
Claudette Bianco of Baiting Hollow said that HK Ventures has previously referred to “warehouse distribution centers”in describing its plans for the site. She said these are two different things and asked which one is being proposed.
Scott Johns, a representative of HK Ventures, said they anticipate attracting smaller tenants.
“It’s not a distribution center,” he said. “But a distribution center many happen if a winery takes 5,000 square feet of space.”
He added that their business “is not going to have to be Amazon sending out 10,000 packages a day.”
HK Ventures tried to kept the trucks separate from the cars.
Mr. Johns said “the need for [warehouse] space in this area is extremely high” and that there is “little to no space of this nature within a 10-mile radius.” The closest, he added, is at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton.
HK Ventures said it has agreements in place to connect with Riverhead’s water and sewer districts.
Toqui Terchun, president of the Greater Calverton Civic Association said the intersection of Edwards Avenue and Route 25 “has been a debacle for many years. It is hardly going to be resolved with the traffic we have now.”
The applicants have proposed to build in phases. Phase 1 would call for construction of four buildings comprising 226,469 square feet of floor area, to be occupied by various tenants. It would also include a 1,500-square-foot cafeteria intended to serve tenants’ employees.
Phase 2 would involve construction four additional buildings totaling 186,160 square feet of floor area). The individual structures would range in size from approximately 44,100 square feet to 56,672 square feet. Those buildings are also proposed for multi-tenant occupancy, with user types differing on the east and west sides.
