Create river greenway without busting the bank

This editorial appeared in the March 19 edition of the Riverhead News Reivew. We could not have said it better ourselves.

Create river greenway without busting the bank

The town is about to close on its $1.25 million purchase of the old Weeping Willow Motel property on West Main Street. The buildings on the site, which runs along the Peconic River, will be razed and the property preserved as open space. It's a welcome move, as it will open up a chunk of downtown's hidden riverfront and enhance the western gateway to Riverhead. The acquisition cost is being funded by the town's Community Preservation Fund, out of the 2 percent real estate transfer tax.
There are many such properties and structures hiding the Peconic River from view -- many of them dilapidated eyesores. We have long held the belief that cleaning up the West Main Street corridor is essential to downtown revitalization. Removing the Weeping Willow is a very good start.

But consider the cost of such a cleanup. While we believe property taxes lost to preservation would eventually be recouped by economic development in a revitalized downtown, simply acquiring all the properties needed to create a true Peconic River greenway carries a huge price tag -- easily mounting to tens of millions of dollars -- that the public treasury can ill afford, especially not in the current economic climate -- or any time soon, for that matter.

But we can provide the incentive for the private sector to create the greenway for the public benefit. Riverhead Town, through zoning, could allow for denser residential use of the north side of West Main Street, with conditions based on the purchase and transfer of development rights from parcels on the south side of the street. Developers of multifamily units on the north side of the street would thus fund the preservation of open space on the south side along the riverfront. West Main Street would become an attractive gateway to downtown, lined by a lovely riverfront greenway on the south and upscale condos, co-ops and rental units on the north -- perhaps three stories high, with river views.

But state DEC bureaucrats in Stony Brook and Albany will never let this happen. The Peconic River is "protected" by the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act, which essentially makes development of such a vision impossible. The much ballyhooed change to a "community river" designation (from its present "recreational river" status) is a red herring. It will not, contrary to popular myth, significantly ease development restrictions in this part of the Peconic River corridor. It simply eliminates the requirement for a DEC rivers act permit for new single-family homes and minor (one- and two-lot) land subdivisions in the river corridor. The law will continue to limit multifamily dwellings to one dwelling unit per acre. So a would-be developer of a five-unit complex would have to have a five-acre site. It's not going to happen.

So the hodgepodge collection of buildings on both sides of West Main Street are destined to remain there until they collapse, or until taxpayers cough up enough dough to buy the riverfront, piece by piece.

Long Island Population declines

With all its wonderful attributes, Long Island's biggest problem should be dealing with all the people who WANT to move here. Instead we see population declines as delineated in Newsday this morning. Click here for the full story.