Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” This was the message First Baptist Church of Riverhead wanted to leave with its audience Monday as the nation celebrated the civil rights leader’s birthday. READ
A pair of hearses lead a lenghty funeral procession into Washington Memorial Park in Coram. (Credit: Grant Parpan)
Tanya Lawrence was described as a giving person at her funeral Saturday, someone who cared for even the most distant of strangers.
Her daughter, Danielle, whose body filled the casket alongside hers, was said to be a shy teenager who brightened up while performing on a stage.
Hundreds crowded First Baptist Church for the joint funeral, saying goodbye to the mother and daughter, as a community begins to heal from the tragic shooting at the family’s home in Wading River last Sunday. (more…)
The Rev. Charles Coverdale at the Riverhead school board on Tuesday night. (Credit: Paul Squire)
Shirley Coverdale, president and CEO of the Family Community Life Center, gave a presentation at Tuesday’s Riverhead school board meeting in an effort to gather support for the nonprofit’s project.
The multi-use center, which was conceptualized by Ms. Coverdale and her husband, the Rev. Charles Coverdale of First Baptist Church, would include 125 apartments, an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a 25-seat theater and media center, 24-hour adult child day care services and more.
The Coverdales also described the project as an investment for the community.
An artist’s rendering of the main atrium at the Family Community Life Center’s recreational and other facilities.
The proposed “Community Benefit” overlay zone needed for First Baptist Church’s Family Community Life Center will soon be revised since it doesn’t have the support of a majority of Riverhead Town Board members in its current form.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio and Councilmen George Gabrielsen and John Dunleavy said at Thursday’s Town Board work session that they could not support the proposed zoning as currently written.
Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman Jim Wooten did support it at Thursday’s work session, where the proposed overlay zone was discussed with representatives of the church, which has proposed building 132 affordable apartment units intended as “work force housing” for the area.
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Mr. Gabrielsen opposed the requirement in the zoning that a project have 800 feet of road frontage on a state or county road in order to qualify for the overlay zone.
First Baptist’s Northville Turnpike property has 807 feet of frontage on a county road.
“That just seems like it was site specific,” Mr. Gabrielsen said.
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Mr. Walter said the proposal will need to be revised to meet Mr. Gabrielsen’s concerns so that a new public hearing can be held in early January.
Another change Mr. Gabrielsen proposed is a requirement for a 50-foot vegetative buffer between the project and neighboring homes, instead of the 25 feet in the proposed code.
“When you have something this dense and this high, I think neighbors have the right to a 50-foot buffer,” he said.
Ms. Giglio said the proposed 10 units per acre of residential housing is too dense, and she also feels the project should not be exempt from taxes, and should pay either taxes or payments in lieu of taxes.
Mr. Dunleavy agreed with the concerns of his fellow council members.
Mr. Walter, who has consistently supported the project, said he thinks Mr. Gabrielsen’s requests “are reasonable and they are doable,” but the tax issues raised by Ms. Giglio and Mr. Dunleavy probably cannot be addressed.
Ms. Giglio also raised the question of what other properties in town would meet the criteria of the proposed zone.
A map produced by town planning and building administrator Jeff Murphree shows about five other properties.
“A couple are owned by the county, and one has an approved site plan on it, so the way I’m looking at this is that there is only one other piece of property in the town that could possibly benefit from this zoning,” Ms. Giglio said.
The proposed overlay zone, which will now be rewritten, would have allowed a community center and workforce housing on land that meets certain criteria, including having 10 or more acres of land with at least 800 feet of frontage on a county or state highway, as well as public water and sewer connections.
The proposed Family Community Life Center would include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a 25-seat theater and media center and 24-hour adult and child day care services. The proposal also includes an indoor walking track, gymnasium, fitness center and classroom space.
It would be located on the 12-acre church property on Northville Turnpike. The Rev. Charles Coverdale has said the income from the apartments is needed to subsidize the rest of the project, which would be open to the community.
The allowed number of housing units would be one per acre, but the proposed zone would allow additional units with the purchase or either transferred development rights from farms, or open space development credits from Suffolk County, which are dedicated for use in affordable housing and would be made available to such projects at no charge.
The church is hoping for the latter and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has publicly pledged support for the project.
The Family Community Life Center project, which has been in the works for more than 20 years, received overwhelming support from speakers at a Nov. 6 public hearing.
Reached for comment after the meeting, Mr. Coverdale said, “We have to go through the process. We want things to be right.”
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | First Baptist Church of Riverhead Sunday School director Mary Miles during the prayer vigil Saturday morning. Pastors (from left) Rev. Marvin Dozier of Unity Baptist Church in Mattituck, Rev. Henry Faison Jr. of First Baptist Church of Southampton, Rev. Charles Coverdale of First Baptist Church of Riverhead and Shirley Coverdale First Baptist Church of Riverhead joined the vigil.’
On this cold, cloudy Saturday morning, about 100 supporters — kids, families and even a few furry friends — gathered at The First Baptist Church of Riverhead for a prayer vigil, asking for help in pushing the Church’s vision of a Family Community Life Center forward.
The center has been in the planning stages, in one form or another, for more than 20 years, and is seeking town board and zoning approval.
The Rev. Charles Coverdale, of the First Baptist Church, led the group in prayer, along with several other local pastors and members of the center’s planning board. They have started a petition, asking for the community’s help in gathering 2,000 signatures supporting the Family Community Life Center to present to the town board.
They hope to get those signatures within the next 10 days.
“Families are the heart of this community,” said Shirley Coverdale, the wife of Rev. Coverdale, commenting on the benefits such a center would bring to the neighborhood, including elder care and a place for young children “who have nowhere to go.”
“This is a project of giving,” Rev. Coverdale said. “What the church did is give us the land,” to use it to benefit the community, he said.
The proposed center would be built on the church’s 12-acre Northville Turnpike campus — and would include a gym, indoor pool, fitness center, community center and 132 “workforce housing” apartment units, among other things.
“The vision is inspiring,” said Riverhead town Supervisor Sean Walter, who voiced his support of the project.
“I want you all to come to town board meetings to speak about this,” Mr. Walter said to the crowd. “This is going to happen,” he said, placing his hand on a Bible.
“It seems like we have lost the YMCA,” Mr. Walter said after the vigil. “This would fill that niche. The young folks, we need more for them here.”
Curtis Highsmith Jr., vice-chair of the Southampton Community Housing and Development Corp. and Riverhead High School graduate, told supporters about a recent field trip he took with Southampton, Riverhead, and Central Islip youths.
“I have heard the stories about kids that said institutions [like this] saved their lives,” because they offer an opportunity to “see the future past their own circumstances,” he said.
“There are men who don’t know how to tie a proper tie,” Mr. Highsmith said. “When you have an organization like this, we can mentor them and enable them, show them that there are opportunities.”
Mr. Walter said he is going reach out to YMCA donors, “and see if it can happen.”
“We need this [center] to be able to galvanize, and have a place to connect,” said Rev. Marvin Dozier of Unity Baptist Church in Mattituck. “We can connect our generations and have a place to learn, play, worship, and grow together.”
“Can’t you see the building,” said Mary Miles, Sunday School director for the First Baptist Church, standing on the land set aside for the proposed Center. “Look behind me, it’s there.”
Rev. Michael Jackson of Triune Baptist Church Sag Harbor, Rev. Henry Faison Jr. of First Baptist Church of Southampton, Rev. Frank Bryant of First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton, and Asst. Pastor Cynthia Liggon of First Baptist Church of Riverhead also offered words of hope.
The project was discussed before the Town Board last year, where board members raised concerns about the number of housing units proposed and whether the project would be tax exempt.
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