The Riverhead Town Clerk’s office has received 76 letters opposing a proposed assisted living project on a 25-acre parcel that Concordia Senior Communities is in contract to buy. The land in question wraps from Mill Road to Middle Road, just north of Home Depot in Riverhead. READ
Despite opposition from some residents who feared noise and traffic and even suggested moving it to EPCAL, the Riverhead Town Board on Wednesday night approved the “Freak Out” music festival proposed by Nile Rodgers Productions for the weekend of Aug. 12-14.
The board also approved a ban on 24-hour operations in three zoning districts, including the one where 7-Eleven is proposing a store at the Vinland Commons in Aquebogue.
An attorney for 7-Eleven said afterward that its “highly likely” that 7-Eleven would file a lawsuit challenging the zoning amendment.
The town is already in court with Vinland Commons over that project.
The board also held a 2-hour public hearing on a zone change proposal to allow assisted living on a Mill Road property. (see separate story)
To read more about Wednesday’s Town Board meeting, click below to read a recap of News-Review reporter Tim Gannon’s live blog of the meeting.
Click below to follow or comment and scroll down for the full meeting agenda and resolution packet.
A large assisted living project planned for 25 acres on Mill Road, behind Home Depot, has reduced the number of units proposed, but Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter thinks it would be better to build it outside the town entirely — in nearby Riverside. READ
BARBARELLEN FILE KOCH PHOTO | The Concordia project is planned for this Mill Road property.
Amid claims by some Riverhead Town officials that a proposed 189-unit assisted living complex on Mill Road isn’t affordable to most local senior citizens, the company behind the proposal, Corcordia Senior Communities, has released an “analysis of affordability issues” about the project that combats those claims.
Corcordia CEO Ronald DeVito notes in the study, commissioned by the company, that monthly costs would include rent, real estate taxes, insurance and electric, water and gas payments, along with meals, housekeeping, laundry and other services all in one bill.
The company’s draft site plan shows 100 independent living units, and also includes 65 “enriched” housing units, which have a higher level of care, 12 enhanced assisted living residences, for seniors who require enhanced levels of care and skilled nursing services, and 12 special needs assisted living residences, for seniors who suffer from cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s disease.
The complex would be built on property north of The Home Depot on Route 58.
The most expensive of these units rents for $11,400 per month, according to Concordia. All of the units are intended for people ages 65 and over.
Using demographic data from Claritas, a national demographics research company, Concordia says that in 2012, Riverhead’s senior (over 55) population totaled 11,109 and was expected to grow to 12,932 by 2017. The research found that 5,269 seniors have incomes greater than $75,000 per year and, “therefore, have the financial means to pay monthly rates that exceed $5,000.”
The research found that 2,471 Riverhead seniors with incomes ranging from $50,000 to $74,999 per month could afford monthly rates of between $4,000 and $4,999; and that 5,958 Riverhead seniors have incomes between $20,000 and $50,000 per year and, “therefore, have the financial means to pay monthly rates of $1,800 for the companion suites in the enriched housing program [where additional medical services are provided] and the monthly rate of $3,950 for the one-bedroom independent living apartments.”
The project so far does not have support from a majority of Town Board members to approve a zone change needed for the Mill Road site.
A proposal to build an assisted living complex on Mill Road may not be going anywhere.
A majority of Riverhead Town Board members declined to resubmit the zone change application for the project to the Suffolk County Planning Commission, which urged denial of the charge in October.
The Town Board would need four votes to override the planning commission denial, and doesn’t appear to have even three votes in favor of the zone change at the moment, based on the discussion at Thursday’s work session..
The board also agreed to give its blessing to the Long Island Rail Road’s plan to lease out part of the Railroad Avenue train station to a taxi cab company.
The company also wants to park cabs overnight in the LIRR parking spaces next to the station.
News-Review reporter Tim Gannon reported live from the work session.
Click here to read the recap.
TIM GANNON PHOTO | Engineer John Gursky discusses his client’s proposed assisted living center on Mill Road at Thursday’s Planning Board meeting.
On the heels of a Suffolk County Planning Commission recommendation against rezoning 25 acres in Riverhead to allow for an assistant living complex, some members of the town’s Planning Board also expressed concerns about the plan at their meeting Thursday.
Concordia Senior Communities is proposing to build a 189-unit assisted living and continued care community on vacant farmland just north of Home Depot on Mill Road.
The Melville-based company has been seeking to build the facility in Riverhead for several years, but the town’s zoning didn’t allow such a use anywhere.
So, at the urging of Councilman John Dunleavy, who has championed the need for such a facility in the town, the Town Board about three years ago began developing a floating zone proposal that would allow assisted living on any property that meets a variety of criteria set out in the new zone, which is called Residence RC (Retirement Community).
The Town Board voted to create the new zone in June, and Corcordia filed an application to change the zoning of the Mill Road parcel, which Concordia is in contract to buy, from Agricultural Protection Zone to the new Residence RC zone shortly afterward.
“The purpose of the Concordia concept is to allow seniors to age in place,” Concordia CEO Ronald DeVito said Thursday. “This means that as a senior requires more care or assistance, our Concordia community will have the services in place to care for them.”
The Suffolk County Planning Commission opposed the project because it felt the agricultural protection zone land would be move valuable to the county as farmland than for assisted living.
On Thursday, Planning Board member Lyle Wells, who is a farmer, raised concerns with the proposed assisted living “because of the giveaways that are in it.”
Specifically, he said the number of non-assisted living units it allows are too many, and the number of assisted living units it allows are too few.
The draft site plan provided by Concordia shows 100 independent living units, which would be lived in by seniors who are healthy and and do not need extensive care.
Of these units, 25 “deluxe” units would rent for $5,700 to $5,850 per month for 1,200 square feet.
The other independent units start at $3,950 and go to as much as $4,975 per month.
The draft site plan also has 65 “enriched” housing units, which have a higher level of care, 12 enhanced assisted living residences, for seniors who require enhanced levels of care and skilled nursing services, and 12 special needs assisted living residences, for seniors who suffer from cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s disease.
The most expensive of these units rents for $11,400 per month, according to Concordia. All of the units are intended for people ages 65 and over.
The rents include meals, housekeeping services, laundry services, activities, yard maintenance and access to wellness programs and a fitness center on the site, according to Concordia.
Mr. DeVito said afterward that the higher number of independent units are meant to subsidize the cost of the assisted care units in order to keep them affordable.
He said this is the only way such a facilty can work, financially.
Mr. DeVito told the Planning Board Thursday that the Riverhead project will be affordable and will meet affordability guidelines set by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development.
“We want to provide facilities where the people in the community in which we’re providing can afford it,” Mr. DeVito told the board.
The rents at some of the “high-end” assisted living facilities are about $6,800 per month and higher, he said.
Another concern the farming community had with the project was that it provides housing densities greater than those allowed with the purchase of transferred development rights from preserved farmland, without having to purchase farmland rights.
Farmers say that requiring commercial projects to use transferred development rights helps preserve farms in town.
Board member Joe Baier asked Mr. DeVito if the proposal uses TDR, and when Mr. DeVito began to explain, Mr. Baier interjected, “yes or no?”
Mr. DeVito said it does not.
The zoning does allow more units per acre for units that meet affordability guidelines. Mr. Devito said the entire project will meet those guidelines, and all of the units will be rentals.
Mr. Dunleavy urged the planning board to support the project. He said the farmland it’s located on hasn’t been farmed since 1979, and that assisted living is needed because the town has a large senior citizen population..
Mr. DeVito said after the meeting that the Mill Road parcel is the only site in Riverhead they will consider for the project. He said they looked at many sites before choosing this one, and all other sites, including EPCAL, are too far from stores and businesses that seniors could walk to.
“It’s nice to be near shopping, but are these people going to be shopping?” asked planning board chairman Richard O’Dea. He asked if the project could work at EPCAL. Mr. DeVito said only if EPCAL were developed with commercial uses, which it currently doesn’t have.
“The concept is good, it’s the mechanism I have problems with,” said board member Ed Densieski, who said he thinks assisted living is needed in town.
The Planning Board is merely being asked to make a recommendation to the Town Board, which casts the vote on the zone change application, and which is under no obligation to go along with the Planning Board recommendation.
However, in order to approve the zone change, the Town Board needs four of its five members to override the Suffolk County Planning Commission recommendation, and so far, it’s not certain the zone change will have four votes, as Councilman George Gabrielsen said he’s leaning toward opposing the zone change and Council members Jodi Giglio and Jim Wooten are undecided.
