Report due on Wading River development moratorium

After a year of demands by Wading River residents that Riverhead town officials impose a development moratorium on Route 25A in their community, the town board will finally get to hear a preliminary report on the issue from its consultants at a work session next week.

Town Supervisor Sean Walter said the board should receive enough information to schedule a formal public hearing soon on the future of Wading River and development issues in the area -- including the possible need for a temporary halt on new construction while town officials decide just what the growing business district along Route 25A should look like.

For generations, Wading River was a small residential community served by a few stores near a pond, but in the past decade shopping centers have sprung up serving a growing population on both sides of the Brookhaven-Riverhead town line.

There are now four new proposals before the planning board for major retail construction projects along Route 25A, and Walter said recently that recurring demands for a moratorium -- the town board has been getting hundreds of letters or emails that become part of its official meeting record every two weeks -- forced one developer to file a plan before a moratorium could be declared to protect his property rights.

One complicating factor is that any decision on zoning made by Riverhead will affect traffic and other conditions in Brookhaven, and vice versa.

Walter said the town consultant, Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, Inc. of Manhattan, will make its presentation at the work session on Jan. 12.