Full Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Alec.
Okay, we have a five matters on today for work session. We're going to discuss with the Water District matters surrounding the status update on the above-ground storage water tank in Wading River. We have matters surrounding an update on the Town Square Amphitheater and Children's Adaptive Playground. We have matters surrounding the First Street Parking Garage. We have code revision matters surrounding possible amendment to Chapter 289 regulating the towing of vehicles from privately owned, publicly accessed parking lots. And we have code revision matters surrounding a possible amendment to Chapter 301, Article 50 Article L-I-I-C. Cannabis will be done by Councilman Rothwell and Assistant Attorney Prudente. So let's get started. We'll call the first one up. We could have Mr. Mancini and Councilor Prudente. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. So I'm going to just jump right in. And the Town Board will recall we did authorizing resolutions and public interest orders authorizing the transfer of property between the Riverhead Water District and the Highway Department. Public interest order authorizing the tank, fully identifying the method and means of funding, and the intention to sell the excess water supply first come first serve basis to projects and developments. All right. I guess I'll take it from here. Here's our drawings that are going to be in the contract. But this project, there were two major things we had to fix for the water system in that that waiting river area is our leanest area in the system in which the early morning irrigation demands hit us the hardest. And really drops the existing tank we have over near the golf course more than it should. And in addition to that, in the same pressure zone where those homes reside is where all the industrial development in Riverhead could potentially land. So we had to solve this potential fire protection issue. So this tank, as far as its function, will resolve both those issues. It's similar to a tank we have on an east end that really helps us because remember, our demand is a very narrow window of time for a small, small part of the year. So the other alternative would be to develop all these wells that we would only use for a very small amount of time. So these ground storage tanks have been a tool utilized throughout Suffolk County by all types of water suppliers to really deal with what I would call the peak demand, mitigating peak demand. So Frank, if you ever wanted to view the tank that we currently have, that's located in Tuttle Lane, Jamesport. And this will be nearly identical. It will be a half a million gallons larger. But it will look nearly identical. In fact, for me, a tank higher in elevation would function better, but we're going to bury this tank at least six feet in the ground to make it more aesthetically pleasing and it won't be any higher than 40 feet in any one location because there's quite a bit of elevation change on this site. I don't know, can you guys scroll through that PDF to, yeah, this is basic elevation. Next one, this is us potentially, when we were early sighting of the tank, go to the next one. And the final one is the best one to probably sit on. One more, one more, okay. So the laser pointer doesn't work great, but you can see in the lower right hand side of this parcel that we made this land deal with Highway to acquire is the tank. Now this project, Ann Marie and myself have been working on it for two years. I know we wanted to get this done as soon as possible, but we're doing so many different things that we've never done before. And it was incredibly complicated. Not only the acquisition of land where I was able to trade an asset that the River and Water District owned that wasn't benefiting the district, which would be the town garage, to acquire this at no cost, but it was of value to my rate payers. So we need to capture that cost and the total cost of this project because we're going to sell that value back to the big developers that need the capacity of the tank. So all costs associated with not only building this tank, siting this tank, but also getting it to function with the existing water system that we have, we're trying to capture as accurately as possible so that we get a true cost of it and we can pass that on to the folks who need it. We'll be utilizing two billion of the American Rescue Fund to build the cement tank. We should have these specs ready within two weeks and I've got a bid and award schedule that looks like we'll be awarding this tank on either March 6th or March 19th, if we follow the schedule. I've got right now. The construction, we'll see who wins it. We've got a number of options. We're looking to build a cement tank. We also have an alternative design for a glass line metal tank that Bob is familiar with, if this cost is just too much. But I think the financial end of it was incredibly complicated and outside of the normal financial management of the water district. And it was really Anne Marie working with bond council to figure out how can we get this project to function in a way that it's not just a project that's going to be used for the water system, but it's also going to be used for the water system. So we're going to be working on that. And I think that's the first thing that we're going to do. And then we're going to be working on the construction of the water system. So I think the financial end of it was incredibly complicated and outside of the normal financial management of the water district. And it was really Anne Marie working with bond counsel to figure out, how could we sell this back by the gallon to the developers who need it? And this is a good example of why the mapping plans are so valuable and sometimes take a lot of time. Because this is the document that defines all of that. And, potentially, if anyone were to ever litigate us or something, would be what we hang our hat on. It's a fair shot. But for the future, for example, for example, for the future, for example, for the future, for example, for the future, for example, for the future, It's very complicated in the way we're doing this. So we learned during this process that if we were to bond an asset like this, a bond can only be given to something that benefits all the rate payers because it's a public asset. But if we did that, we wouldn't be able to sell it to a developer because it can only ask a developer to pay for what they actually need to support their project. So we had a conflict there, and it took a long time to figure out how we were going to do this. And she basically worked with bond counsel to resolve that in that we're going to take a chunk out of my fund balance and build the remainder of this asset and almost immediately, with the first project being HK Ventures, sell a portion of this back to recoup that cost. So the total amount, we're capable of outlaying the remainder of the money, but it may be that we recoup some of the money before we've even incurred the cost at this point. Frank, you mentioned early on that. This was the option as opposed to several small wells. Yeah. Several small wells probably would be a lot more expensive. I know wells are expensive to go in. They're expensive. And then you've got location and everything. Yeah, the permitting process of a well in Riverhead is difficult. We're having – the DEC is very slow, and I'm doing my best to resolve all of our issues with the DEC, but they don't work on our time schedule. So that could potentially delay this for years. We are working on new well sites, too. At the same time. So we've got a number of big projects happening right now with the Water District, and probably a dozen different mapping plans in the works at any one time. So I think this is a good opportunity for people to understand how large and scale the Water District is. And every time you guys approve a capital budget for the Water District, only about four or five of them have been to build something for the Water District. Every other one of those is to make the Water District bigger by supporting another development. So every board meeting, we get a little bit bigger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The height on the well, how do you compensate? That's a great question. For pressure. So in my world, the easiest thing is an elevated storage tank because gravity does the work. Once you get the water up in the tank, gravity does the rest. Unfortunately, they're incredibly expensive to build and maintain. So a 2.5 million gallon elevated tank would be probably in the $20 million range and cost us millions to maintain every few decades. So the cost-effective solution is this ground storage tank where we boost it with pumps that's that little square box to the left of the big circle and we'll have three different pumps in there because we're going to have to supply a little bit of water sometimes and a massive amount of water other times. So that's how we do it with booster pumps. It's booster. We fill the tank with existing system pressure and we have to regulate that flow because if we move water too fast in the water system, we cause rust. And to get it out of the system, we pump it with large pumps we call can boosters which are deep well turbine pumps in these big. That square building there actually has a huge underground component to it where the pipes attached to the tank lead into these big like clear wells we call them. The tank sits in there. That's how we boost it into the system with electrical power. So it's a little bit more expensive to operate with time because an elevated tank gravity would do that work. In this case, every gallon of water we move mechanically using power. And with this, we're going to require a backup generator because say a hurricane happens and people use electricity. We never shut down and every one of our sites has backup generator power. So it's a large operation. It's a large project for us. And I think it's going to work out really good for us. And I think the way we structured it over the last two years is really innovative even as far as paying it back. The goal here is to not only build this thing, but years from now have this asset that the Riverhead rate payer didn't even pay for. Only the people who needed it paid for it. And the part that we needed, we paid for with the American Rescue Fund. What about the residents of Radium River in the initial startup of this project? Are we going to have iron problems, rust in water and things like that initially for the initial flows? That's a good question. When we really start testing this tank, it's not impossible that that would happen. So I'll have a flushing crew available. Just like if you live on Middle Road and Northville Turnpike, you may have experienced one or two rust events in the last year or two because we're doing massive work to that location. And we have done things like that. So I bring my outside crew in and we're prepared to flush. That is a great question. And it's not impossible that something like that would happen the first couple days we operate it. Even in the design, we give ourselves so many options on how this thing is going to be configured. And the tank in Wading River is also going to be modified that we have now because if we don't modify that tank, we could potentially overflow it and have problems filling this tank. They essentially have to work together. So it just occurred to me the last couple weeks. So I had a meeting yesterday with H2M and we captured some of the, all of the work that Plant 9 will need to ensure that this tank will work correctly in the system. Something as big as this added to the water system is going to change the way it works completely. Right now, we move water from the east of Riverhead west into Riverhead to try and satisfy this demand in the morning. I anticipate after this tank is done that we're going to have all the water we need because we have wells in River, on the west side of Riverhead, and we're going to have wells in the east side of Riverhead. And we're going to have wells in the west side of Riverhead. And we have to shut off as the system, demand drops and the system starts to fill, water's non-compressible so you get these high pressure conditions within the system on the west side of Riverhead. People know that they live there. They could have as much as 120 pounds of pressure in the main, say around Moleskies, on the recovery on a big summer day. This tank is going to be like where we can put that water. Now we would have to shut the wells off. We'll continue to run those wells and we'll fill this tank up on that second half of the day to prepare for the next morning. And that'll leave all the water we have on the eastern side of Riverhead there. We no longer have to move water from what we call plant 10 this side. So it's really going to change the way our water system functions. And when we design it, that's a lot of the work and thinking that I have to do. We rely on our consulting engineers to put together our packages and the real design of it. But nobody operates the Riverhead water system except for us. So say like Mark Conklin, my predecessor, has been involved. In the planning of this. My assistant superintendent, John Flynn, some of my employees, because we all get together and we think how is this going to work? Nobody knows how it's going to work until we actually put it on. But let's give ourselves the, all the options possible so we know this is going to work correctly for us. Does this impact future development for EPCAL in any way? Does it enhance anything? Yeah, it does. EPCAL resides in the high zone. So this would add that level of water availability. And fire protection to anything that's in the high zone. And technically anything in the low zone because it's easier for us to drop water from the high zone to the low zone. We don't have to pump it. We use things called hydraulic valves to do that. So even if we had a big demand in the low zone, this tank could potentially dump water into the low zone. Where for me to move water from the low zone to the high zone, we have a couple of booster stations that do that. But I got to mechanically boost the water up to the high zone. It costs money. Any other questions? I think I'm going to ask a silly question. But I did go to the event that Bob had gone to. And they did speak about these tanks that have to be repainted after a certain period of time. And they mentioned, I'm sorry, I'll speak louder. And they mentioned that there was a new process where Bob was mentioning about that they get glazed over. Was it Bob? It's glass lined. I can tell you about it. It's glass lined. Can you do that on a tank? That's going to be buried to a certain extent as opposed to raised? Because it seemed like while it was an initial expense, it seemed like it saved a great deal of money over time. I just don't know if you could do that with a tank that's so large. You can't. They're glass fused glass lined tanks. You have to construct it from the beginning to be that way. You can't take an existing metal tank and line it with glass. So that's called the aquastore product. We have it as an alternate in this contract. And it's just simply. It's a completely different way to build a tank. This is going to be cement. And it's going to be painted if you want as any color you want. I estimate every couple of decades we'll spend maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars to maintain it as opposed to a few million to maintain a metal tank. An aquastore tank requires a different type of maintenance that requires the seals to be changed. And the big ones on Long Island are not common right now because there are a lot of questions and a little bit of different risks. Say somebody like. This sounds crazy but shoots at it or damages it in some way. You have to take that panel off the tank and replace it. That's a massive project where that sounds crazy but that's happened in my career that people damage your asset. Either shoot it or run into it or do something bad to it. So if they were to damage the glass lining there's no way to really repair that. You got to now take that tank out of service and take chunks of it out and repair it. It's not impossible that we would end up with a glass lined tank if the cost for this is just too much for us to take. But time, my experience has proven and Long Island has proven that these cement ground storage tanks are the most cost effective to design and the easiest to maintain. And that there's very little way to damage them. I would expect this asset to be functioning for the water district at a minimum of 50 years and probably closer to 100 years. Where those other tanks would require replacements sooner than that. Okay. The other benefit. The benefit of this project is when we negotiated the deal back and forth with the highway department. The highway superintendent agreed to provide labor related to the initial aspects of construction. Yes. Drainage work. Which is a cost that we will pass on but a cost that we won't actually outlay because of the agreement that we were able to negotiate with Mike. Right. So essentially the water district is going to pay the town via highway department $100,000 for that work. But like Frank said that cost is going to be passed along to the purchasers. Right. In exchange the highway superintendent agreed that that quote chargeback for lack of a better word would be utilized. Right. For the improved highway building that he desires to build on the property. Just we're doing a big circle of the taxpayer money but it's all staying in the circle. Yeah. It's the best usage of the money. Right. And it's protective of the Riverhead Water District rate payers. I'm thankful for Mike for working with us. We're going to share this yard that he had. He'll be on the left side. We'll be on the right side. We'll share a gate. I have to fence mine in separately because water assets have to be protected a little bit more. But Mike really worked with us well and helped us tremendously. Good. Thanks a lot. Frank, an unrelated question. Could we get a quick update on the paint job on Route 58? Yeah. So I was just there yesterday. You'll see the shrouds moving up and down. They have what's called a recycler on site which is the outside of the tank is coated with some kind of plastic coating that they did decades ago. It's very hard to get off.
gets applied to the metal surface. From that point on, we'll be able to demobile the blasting equipment, which is a massive amount of equipment on that site, and then we'll just concentrate on painting the rest of the tank. The internals are blasted and coated with zinc already. Once you've got that done, you've got a lot of flexibility with that project, because when you blast a tank, you have to coat it with the zinc immediately, because you'll get what we call flashing, where you get some rust buildup on the metal surface. Yeah, some oxidized iron erupt right away. So this part is hard. This part's much harder to manage. And remember, all this has to be done in the winter. It has to be online by the spring. Right. So the reconfiguring of the systems we do is hard, where this is going to be a big construction project for us, but it's not going to require the system manipulation like the 58 tank is requiring and plant five. So we've got two massive projects occurring right now that require us to rearrange the whole water system to get them to come offline and enable us to work on them. Anybody have any questions? His knowledge is amazing. How many gallons does the tank on the 58 tank? It's a quarter of a million, 750,000 gallons. The 58 tank. And that's a gravity tank, obviously. Yeah, it's what we call elevated storage. I wish it, you know, we want the biggest tanks we can. It's a big tank, but in my world, it's not that big. Yeah, because that, I think the cost of paint, that's what? 3 million? We estimated 3.5 million, a great price, so we're in it for 2.6 million at the moment. That was good news. Yeah. Because I look at that being a couple hundred thousand, and I just look at the difference. Yeah, that's the point I wanted to make. You know, and that's... The long-term maintenance costs for a cement tank have proven to be a fraction of any other tank in the business. That's why they're so popular. But there's only two companies in the country who build them. So that's the other variable, is we've got to get these two companies aggressively bidding our project and schedule them correctly. So we do want to get this on the street as soon as possible. And once we get this underway, you can anticipate, shortly, hopefully, we're chasing well sites. Yeah. Yeah. We are. Good. Actively. Yeah, it's a huge story. I always thank you guys for the work we do with the USGS. We've extended our relationship with them for years. Riverhead's underground water is incredibly complicated. We've got a lot of water on the east end. And it's how I work with the DEC. I basically use really strong science to go back and forth and have obtained two well permits for the water district that we had previously not been able to obtain with the real hard science that we do with the USGS.
The guy I know up in Vermont, Don, the hydrologist, said he knows he's coming down to Riverhead to do some work this spring. Yes. The state recently decided they're going to invest in three large wells in Riverhead. And it's going to probably cost $1.5 to $2 million. Remember, we paid for two. This is a huge thing for Riverhead. And it's how we'll understand the water resources of Riverhead probably more than any other section in Long Island. So it really is important for us. And we're actually thankful to the agricultural community that we, before we put these wells in, we do what's called a time domain resistivity study on the surface. And we do a lot of work on the surface where we can see the saltwater interface. So I just reached out to Cornell and we're looking for, Frank Bayrod always helped us tremendously. But you can't do those surveys unless there's nothing buried under the ground. So the agricultural land in Riverhead has enabled us to look for the interface where other, and there's been pushback from the state because it looks like there's so much work done in Riverhead. And because we paid for a lot of it, most importantly, they leave that out. But a lot of the rest of Suffolk and Nassau doesn't have that open space to allow, right, for the water to go down. And that's why we're looking for a time domain resistivity study. And we're looking for an open space for this cutting-edge technology to be used. So we really are on the cutting edge of what I would call like large-scale water resource management in hydrogeology because of what you guys, what we do with the USGS. And you guys have been so supportive of that. Well, listen, I know you can talk water all day. But unfortunately we have other people to bring up here. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. We wouldn't do it without yourself and Frank's arrangement. Keep up the great work. Good work on the bonding stuff. Yeah, that would be great for us at 3AM. That's good. Okay, next up we have Matters Surrounding an Update on the Town Square Amphitheater and Children's Adaptive Playground, and that will be Dawn Thomas, Frank Messina, and Anne-Marie Prudente. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, happy new year again. Happy new year. Now they're all together. So you were sent by email, and I think Chip has a little thing.
So when we last left off, we had received two $200,000 grants for preliminary design for the adaptive children's playground for the four. It's fully accessible for all ages. And the amphitheater. Talk a little louder. Sorry. The riverfront amphitheater. And so those two grants were from a program called Brownfield Opportunity Area Study. They were not DRI grants, but they work together with DRI. And so in order to hire a consultant, we needed to do an RFP, which you will recall we did in the fall. And we got a very robust response, which we were very excited about from a ton of great consultants. And so we had a very hard job to ferret through those applications. And we narrowed down. I think we had about six applicants for each project. Frank's book here just has the entire RFP process. If you ever want to see a masterpiece of organization, just go to Frank's office. It's everything. Really just And so we had our planning staff, my office, and some of you. We then narrowed it down. We did interviews. We interviewed three. We narrowed each project down to three consultants we interviewed. And we ultimately agreed to select Lee Skolnick's firm for the amphitheater and a company called LVF. And so I have given those proposals to you all to look at. LVF is working with Cameron Engineering. And then if you see some of the work that they've done, and Barry Long also, who's our consultant for all our downtown projects, participated in the review of all of these. And LVF, I think the best page to look at is probably, they did a lot of work on a giant. It's a $400 million park that has flooding issues in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And that, let's see, they didn't put page numbers on it. But like this page with the birds, this is the kind of work that they do. And it is really amazing. It really integrates the community into the project. So it's not just a playground for, you know, anywhere. It's a playground that's going to be designed for. It's going to be designed for the riverhead and incorporate elements from our environment and community in it. And so I think what we can expect from LVF is an amazing playground. It will also manage the water issues that we have down the river, as you will recall. The project, the playground project and the amphitheater project both provide flood protection to Main Street and the town square. So you can see they've dealt with, in this Tulsa, Oklahoma project, a flooding issue in a park area. It's a riverfront park also. And so they really were, they came out on top. I mean, when I tell you, I think it was a very, one of the hardest decisions we had to make. There was really great people, really great firms that applied. But this really felt like us. And what we really liked about them was they have, with them, a very, two things stood out with this. One was they understood and recognized that we already did a ton of public engagement. So we had many public meetings. We had Zoom meetings. We had personal meetings where we engaged the community in what we should have in the playground. So rather than start that process over again, they're going to propose ideas and let the community react. And we felt like that was going to, we're sort of, you know, wanting to keep our momentum going rather than starting all over with public engagement. What do you want? Here's what we think we recognize you want from what we've done already. And so we're going to start that process over again. And we're going to start that process over again. And we're going to start that process over again. And we're going to start that process over again. And we're going to start that process over again. And then the other part was their focus on making sure that what we propose on paper, which can be amazing, can actually get done. Because we don't want to propose things that, A, don't fit into the budget, and, B, you know, just never get done. So the playground has almost a million dollars in funding for construction. So we are, we just received another $500,000 from New York State Parks this year. And we have a lot of money. And we have another almost $300,000 from DRI and another $150,000 private contribution. But the great thing about these two projects are that they're very ripe for philanthropic contributions. So people could sponsor elements of the playground and have naming rights. And so we feel like we want to design it for that purpose and then move from there. And then I'll just quickly go over the amphitheater. So for similar reasons. Everyone who participated agreed that Lee Skolnick, whose firm is located in St. Harbor, was the better pick. We had, again, very stiff competition. But the thing that stood out for us in this were two things. One was his experience. And we've, you know, seen some of his work. But also that they brought a part of this project includes a market study so that we right-size the amphitheater. So we don't build too big, too small. We don't build too big, too small. And so we're going to build a lot of the right-size ones. And then we're going to build a lot of the wrong ideas. And so the market study here is part of the grant requirement. And it's going to be completed by a company called HRNA who's amazing. And their consultant came. That HRNA was represented at the interview. And they basically were very clear that they understood the nuances of this type of facility very well. And we felt very confident that what they come up with will be right-sized for us. And then Indigo River is their other consultant. They're flood from this person. And they're going to be doing a lot of work. And then for the other person was off the hook. The firm knows and understands flood mitigation and designing things to incorporate flood mitigation. So we really felt confident in the end that those were the two picks. And so in your packet next week, you'll have draft agreements to sign these guys up and start the process. And we, one of the things we emphasized in the interviews was we want to move quick because that's what we've been doing all the while. Even though it feels quiet, maybe, in the public. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. realm we've been cranking along these projects so and a lot of technical work as you can see this is just one aspect of the technical work happening there's other grants that we're managing and working with and getting contracts and project descriptions with and stuff and so so what we think based on this is that at the end of this year and I think this is a rational thought that we'll be breaking ground on these projects at the end of 24 if not sooner as fast as we can get these done these will get us bid documents so that we can the next step will be to bid and we do have construction money the other the other thing that's really wonderful about this is that at the same time are these projects are converging with the Patrick Sully master developer transaction and the construction of the town square so it can all which is really amazing because the hard part of figuring all this out is you know mainstream it's going to be kind of imploded for a while when we start this and we understand that but having it all done at the same time is better than not and so we put we're putting together not only these these people Barry Long's been overseeing everything for us and in addition Joe Petruccelli's design team has been now we put everybody together and they're all working at the same time so we're hoping that Barry can continue to oversee that entire network of consultants we have one more consultant to hire for the town square proper I'm going to suggest that we have LVF do that upper town square piece which is a separate which is where it connects to Main Street and then there's another piece we got grant money for for what we call complete streets improvement so if you've been down to West Hampton lately you know what they did down there that's what complete streets gives you and so we have some funding for that and then we're ramping up for our next project. We're going to be working on the next application for the raise grant which is due at the end of February that's $25 million half of that will go to about half of that will go to the parking garage plan and the other half would go to the network of complete streets that will connect the railroad station as the transit oriented development to downtown through with bike paths walking landscaping lighting signage make it all very so when you get off at the training and you see our new TOD project it will look welcoming and you'll know where to go or if you park anywhere downtown you'll be able to see the new TOD project. If you want to go to the next project you can go to the next project and you'll know where to go or if you park anywhere downtown you'll be able to see the new TOD project. if you want to go to the next project you can go to the next project and you'll know where to go or if you park anywhere downtown you'll be able to see the new TOD project. downtown is here's where the aquarium is you're gonna be able to feel lit safe the streets will feel occupied and cared for and so that's the overall project but we're you know just we've been we have a generalized site plan just in terms of what what space how much area that we're allocating for the amphitheater what we're allocating for the playground and how it all fits together those will be that will result from this process so with the town board's input and these consultants and the public you can shake out what exactly you want to put where and why and how it works together it all has got to work together to flood protect Main Street and and then also for the funding piece because while we do have significant funding for the playground we have only the design fund for the amphitheater so that again lends its own to the community and the community itself and so that's the whole point of the project is to make sure that we have the right funding for the self-tipped philanthropic contributions and sponsorships and things that we've discussed over time but right now I have no public you know state grant funding for that and that isn't something that we'll be incorporating into the raise grant because it doesn't fit with what that's for that's transportation so to Ken's point you know I would I would like to see before these guys go way down you know start down this path that we look at the the options because I know and I think it's it's important to for the public to understand when we say Town Square versus what are we calling the space where the playground and the splash pad is going to be what's that called that's what we're referring to that as the lower terrace or lower Town Square okay so the lower Town Square right and I can't agree more you know we're talking about you know I'd like to know we keep calling it an amphitheater but you know I'm calling a stage but I would like to get in early with who's ever doing that because you know I look at three things going on the veil which holds about 200 seats you got the subject theater which will not compete with the veil and then you've got this lower Town Square which could hold 5,000 people right and if there's a stage between East End Arts like at the edge of East End Arts West now East End Arts can program on their property and then we can program and we're talking about and again when you're programming for three four or five thousand people that does not compete with Suffolk Theatre because they can't hold that amount and it doesn't compete with the veil that's why the key component is the market study the possibility study that so that's part of the proposal I understand what I'm saying is we're the CDA board as the CDA board you know and I know we can only meet two at a time but I think it would be good to hear from everybody and what they think if you know what had these guys do the market study you know they need to notice the parameters I think me and I think Bob and I agree on this if I'm understanding him correctly just in terms of a generalized site plan towards how much space allocated for each one. I just want to make sure that the town square is not a giant playground, that it is a gathering area, restaurants, and the placement of things, and that the whole amphitheater is not the entire coast. To be clear, a lot of times when we talk about the town square, we're really talking about the upper deck, which is going to be open for the restaurant seating and everything. So Dawn and I now call it the upper deck. The lower deck is the adaptive playground, the amphitheater. That's lower deck. The upper deck is going to mirror, really, the lots of 117 and 121 that we took down. That upper deck is going to be everything you just described and envisioned. I like Bob's ideas early on about the square. I like the mesh pad and other things like that. I just want to see the whole project is not a giant playground. It's going to be part of this process. This is going to be part of the process, and that's why it's important that they all work together, and that's why it's important to have a guy like Barry helping oversee that interaction between the two. But if you look at what they're talking about here, this is just very preliminary. They haven't even, but you can see, this is where the playground, this is that other portion that's directly below the hotel. We're thinking that, and they did a giant ice rink that's all, like, cemented. It's very synthetic, and so they can roll it up and take it out. But in the winter, how nice would it be to have a playground here, have a nice rink here, and then, but you have to input with them, and that's what this is all about. And the feasibility in terms of the market study will tell you exactly how many people you can expect to come and what that involves. And so that's what they do, and that's why we're really excited to get them. So that's the first step, the market. Because in order to get them to come, you have to have a lot of people. And so that's what we're doing. And so that's what we're doing. And so that's what we're doing. And so in order to know what you're going to build, you want to know what, if 5,000 people is the number that you want to get downtown, how often do you want that to happen? Who's going to manage it? All of those things will become questions that you'll have to answer. Or maybe the answer will be, oh, it really is only going to support more of a band shell that is programmed more like weekly and then has more community input. I don't know the answer. That's why we're doing this, because you want to know the answer yourself. And so that's why we're doing this. And so that's why we're doing this. And so that's why we're doing this. And so that's to right size it because if you remember what joe myrick said you don't want to have an empathy that sits there empty so we want to make sure that it's right sized that's the key and but you you all have any input and all input you want in this process because this is for you to do i think these firms are incredibly well qualified and i think whatever you think needs to be part of it will be considered and then once you get to that point then you're going to do plans you know then those those preliminary designs which are being done here will become real plans and be bid um so do we have an outline time frame towards study will be done yeah so uh yeah but it's it's it's a we we're going to push them as quick as possible it's about a six-month process all in all for the market study for the whole design the market study is shorter can we get regular meetings up with these folks you know because i mean i mean one of my things is when you say yeah the theater has got that step down stuff and it's not just i don't know if it has any stuff down okay that was just the concept i understand i don't know anything what it's going to i have no preconceived notion i don't know how this works that's why we hire professionals the amphitheater is going to be somewhere around 17 weeks so quick that was what the the proposal said it was something around the same for the playground so bob i know you like timelines on deliverables so if the town board decides today we should move forward with the resolution and the professional services agreement i'll make sure and i'm going to work with frank dawn and i talked about it that i put in those deadlines yeah they have to be in there so that you know nothing goes beyond and also i would like to thank the mayor for making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job in making sure that we did a good job near Smith's Point who is in disarray blah blah blah they put in a splash pad and the place is packed constantly don't even bother with the play discussion so it's definitely part of it and we're hoping that that can alternate with ice maybe for the winter the only thing about the ice that I'm concerned about is I don't want to do anything that's going to compete with the hockey room you know that's my that's my only concern you know with that the timeline on playground was around 34 weeks that's where the proposal had come in that's the study plus presentation of plans that's done start to finish yeah permits and everything so when week 35 construction begins that's what we're hoping they said they might be able to do it a little bit faster but that's what their proposal stated so one other quick question I remember earlier in the year when we were talking about the early on right there was a there was a wall up you know a Heide Bear Way so on the north side you know we were gonna fill in and raise that lower level so are we not doing that anymore that's still happening that has to happen because the whole town square is basically three levels the riverfront part which is going to have to eventually come up to that could be the last piece of the project and all of the components can work independently depending on when we get funding so they're not part of the phase phase of people down there and it's not going to be you know you can use it for parking sometimes you can use it for kiosks you could use it for a fair whatever whatever it is it becomes very multi-purpose then the next level up is the lower terrace which is the playground and the amphitheater and then the next level is the town square so the town square flat level will be pretty much even with main street it's probably around 11 feet elevation if you if you look at what the town square looks like now you see the slope that's the natural that's the problem that we have that we have to solve and so this way to solve it is to step it so the town square will be flat up to the back of the hotel and then there'll be steps and ramps down to to the terrace level which would be the splash pad the skating the ice we go to the amphitheater and then the next level down will be the riverfront linear park which and there'll be a wall there that it's not it won't be a wall it could be a lot of different things but i'm anticipating that like if you look at the pictures of the that lbf did in um kansas city a lot of rock you know rather than concrete wall and retain actual you know normal looking retention structures it could be a composition of natural elements that bring that level up it's going to be filled obviously so that the height is right there and then it can be flooded so the purpose of the lower square square and the riverfront is that we know that at some point another sandy comes those areas can we're not going to be able to build them up high enough to keep them from being flooded but they will be floodable and that's what these people do specifically and then those then when the water recedes and in fact in the kansas city you can see the way they design the park is it has a whole different look when it's flooded and you can still access it right and so that's what that's what we're hoping to achieve and then the same with the amphitheater it could be flooded so whatever it's been correct to be wet on occasion the town square in our lifetimes will never be wet we only need to be a foot higher than southampton and all the water goes that way yeah so it's but the complete streets piece also mitigates a lot of the storm water because that's the whole other component so we have the water that comes up from the river and then a lot because it's a low point the water that can converges from all of the streets in downtown. So those complete streets will manage some of that stormwater and put it into drainage swales and bio gardens and things like that to sort of keep it from getting into that low spot as quickly as it normally does. Yeah, because you do have a hydraulic gradient. Yeah. All the way down, even from behind, you know, Woolworths, right? Even where you look at that parking lot in the back to Main Street is higher. So, you know, if you, and it's a good, if you stand in that alleyway at the Civic Theater, you can see that ramp up. It's not flat. So on the north side of Heidi Bear Way, if this is Heidi Bear Way, there's not going to be a wall here. So the question. It'll be. It'll be up a little bit? No, it's going to be four foot higher than Heidi Bear Way. Where that playground is, the level is going to be about four foot higher than Heidi Bear Way. It may not be a wall per se. It may be other types of structures that. Natural appearances. That lift the grade. Right, exactly. We'll see what they come up with. But they had 64 acres to deal with. I'm curious. How many of those acres, you know, absorb the water? That's one. The other thing you mentioned that I'm curious about is the bulkhead coming up two feet. So we're going to raise the bulkhead that's currently on the river two feet. That's what the Army Corps has suggested. Okay. What about handicap accessibility? How does that factor in? So it factors in hugely. And one of the great things about the top to bottom project is from the parking garage, everything down to the riverfront itself. Okay. Okay. Okay. So it's going to be completely accessible. And this playground is designed specifically to be a draw for kids of any ability. Fantastic. Fantastic. And so we're removing all the barriers to mobility. We're going to make it. That's one of the main features of all of this is that you can go from one place to another. Whether you're, you know, in a wheelchair, you have a cane, a walker, or, you know, whatever it is that you need to use to get to places. You know, Ms. Thomas, I just wanted to mention one of the renderings you had. It showed me in terms of going down by the water had like steps. Yeah. As a way to create that barrier that we're talking about that can flood up. And had steps down to the water. And the rendering had people in kayaks you can use. Yeah. That can just be accessible right there at the waterfront. And one of the other DRI projects that was a winner is the boathouse. And so East End Rowing, we're doing the grant, but East End Rowing will be building a boathouse. And that is also being designed to be fully accessible. So it's one of the focus points that we've really kind of had throughout that we want the Alton River Head to be a place for everybody, regardless of anything. Money, no money. You know, mobility, no mobility, whatever it is. Take your kayak down to the water. Step down and go up. Yep. So those are the things that we're cranking along on. This is very exciting. It is. I have to say. It really is. It's exciting. Yeah. I feel like I'm at the back and forth of your enthusiasm. I can feel it. Oh, yeah. We're already excited. I don't think we could be more enthusiastic to talk about it. We get moved. And to see it actually happen, you know, like those are the things that we've been waiting for. But the assistance of great designers, people who understand how these things work, do them at other places, has been critical. I can't say enough for UEA and their input. I don't think we would be. I mean, the first. And not to prolong our discussion. But the first interaction we had with them was on the pattern book. And I won't get into too much detail, but I was completely precluded from participating in any of that by someone who was on the town board at that time. But I had an opportunity to talk to Barry Long, and I said, listen, we were thinking about this idea. We don't have anybody to draw on the idea. Could you help us? And he was like, sure. And the next thing you know, pictures of the town square. And then I was like, what's this? And then I was like, what's this? And then I was like, what's this? And then I was like, what's this? original i saved them all our little sketches with black magic markers and location maps and stuff and he drew the dream and in order for us to take it to the next level then you're able to show it to somebody and say this is a really good idea can you help us pay for that and that's where we and that's what got the town board to say okay you know what it makes really good sense to buy these buildings and knock them down even though people will be like oh my gosh it's a lot of money yeah it is but it's an investment in us and that's the difference you know really uh can see how this turns in how not only does it transform riverhead as a tourism destination but it's for the riverhead residents too it changes the way we look at our town we get to see it the way we know it can be so that is what gives us excitement i do think during this process we should consider a pr firm to kind of just constantly keep the general public apprised on what's going on and what's going on in the city and what's going on in the city and what's going on in the city and what's going on what's happening how their tax dollars are being spent and to see it because you are i i've said it many times over going you you're obviously guys are doing a ton of work and it's just the public doesn't see that right and know how many hours you're spending grant writings and you guys are phenomenal but just i wish that then on our website we can have a specific dedicated page or something that says you know the town square and here you go to it's a pr and then this is what's coming this is a time frame this one let the people know we are actively working it it's not just yeah it's not just a christmas tree there's so much more to come within the town square that might benefit i'm sorry i've actually been working with bill rothar and and my staff about uh a position for somebody to come in and be a pr person for us handle our social media and even eventually maybe be in charge of scheduling the events and things that are down there so yeah great we're just stealing pennies looking for pennies here there and everywhere else to try to make this happen but it's something that's been needed even long before before this there's so many good things that go on in this town and all the negativity gets the headlines and all the good stuff gets the back page so it's time for us to promote ourselves these two design processes will have public engagement so the public will be invited to participate they had some really good ideas about how to get kids involved in the design ideas and what they said then one of the things that they talked about a lot was how when you have the children and families participating in what goes in the park and then they go to the park and they see it and they're like oh i had something to say and i had some impact in my world and that's a really good lesson for kids uh makes them become public servants like you all so that's what we need uh in the future so and then i guess we could just sort of segue right into the garage right so that's the next well so i just want to confirm that the town board is good award resolution and professional services agreement that's a guy for me yes okay great thank you very much so the next well Not 34, 30 weeks. Yeah, I can't say enough about the team that we have here. It really is just phenomenal. It is just like a dream come true. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder why I get paid for this job. It's so much fun. Wait, there's no money for the P.O.P.? There you go. So, but the next piece, in order to make all of this happen, on the down low by the river is to get the parking out of that area and put it on the north side, which I know you have been following closely. And so since we last spoke, we probably, since we last spoke, we received the $2 million grant from the Suffolk County for the Jump Smart. That's going to pay for all the soft costs for the parking garage. So we've already done ground testing, so they've done ground penetrating, they've done penetrating radar, they've done soil borings, they've done, and they also, we hired a company called Level G who's done a feasibility on how many species we ought to have and what it ought to, where it ought to be and how it should function and how it should be built based on. And our consultant, NDC, which is now has another name. I know, I forgot what it was. They changed their name, but NDC is still NDC. They have a new name. It's like something about America that builds or something. So they also, do parking garages all over the country. And one of the things that they are good at and where we finally got to is where they've done feasibility on what we expect revenue-wise from the garage and how we can pay for the garage. Because, of course, this is the big question, right? You've got to build it. How are you going to pay for it? So two sources of funding that we are anticipating is one from the sale of our two-acre Court Street parcel that will become the TOD. Currently, that number is around $7 million. That could give or take a little depending on how things go with that transaction. And then we have the $2 million. So we have, you know, right now we'll just use the $9 million. So we've been applying for RAISE funding for this will be our fifth application. It took us five years to get DRI, so it's not unusual to continue to apply for something even though you get hit over the head. And then we realized when we don't get it, it's good because we weren't quite ready for it. So now when we apply, not only do we have, we'll have, we have a preliminary design for the garage, which I think Chip has a, a little, the parking garage slides. I think Devin sent them. So we have conceptual designs, and so you can see the location will be in the back bump out right there. That's the location of the garage. It's, part of the reason we think that's a really good location is you can see that it recreates first trees. street, right? First Street used to be a street and where that garage is shown, there used to be houses and that was actually a road that went through from East Avenue to Roanoke. So the objective would be to really make that look like a street again. So it would have sidewalks, lighting, signage, and you'll feel like you walk out of the garage onto a street and it'll tell you exactly where you need to go from there. And there you can see some of the crosswalks and those crosswalks and the entrances to the garage are designed to connect with the two alleyways that go to Main Street. So you can see how that works there. The cost of the garage based on estimates, so the number of stalls that's suggested is 504 based on a bunch of different parking studies that we've done and the public engagement that this Level G company just did. All of the stakeholders downtown. participated and so at 504 the cost is expected to be around $23 million. So if you take the nine off the 23 there, there's our gap so that gap can get filled in a multitude of ways. But one way is through a grant. So if we get last year we applied for 10. I think we're going to up that number a little bit. But the good news about the garage is it's a revenue generating source so it can pay for a bond. So then the objective obviously is to have no cost to the tax back. Right. So if you say revenue generated source meaning well, the renting spaces out, are you collecting money for parking? Oh, so it will be so we've in consult and consultation with the Petrocelli group. They are because they don't have parking. The hotel will require them to have valet so they will have to reserve a certain number of spaces at a cost. And then the use of the garage on a day to day basis. Will will have a. Really a cost and on the weekends be a different cost. But then the way the garages work now is all sort of electronic. So if you're an employee downtown and your boss has reserved space is all you're you're gonna farm in. You'll know how many space is you you have in the garage and what's left the thing the thing that's going to be a challenge for some people to think about is in order to charge for the garage. We are going to have to charge for parking elsewhere downtown. But we don't have to charge a ton. But in for us to and I think we're worth it honestly you know a buck an hour or something like that but those meters if you've seen them now they're not like the old parking meters and you don't need to truck tires or anything like that you just put your card in and you can do this exactly you can add to it or whatever from your phone it's all done by credit card so but if I and I didn't distribute and I will distribute to you the the if we didn't get any grant money and we only had nine million dollars so the way these garages work is the bot it gets bonded and then if we if the revenue doesn't cover the bond just like CPF we would the town would make up the difference so the objective is to have enough revenue toward it so that bond is covered by the revenue but the projections that they've given us and we sat Bill sat and Jeanette sat and on a meeting with us all last Friday morning and it looks pretty good that they're making a lot of money and we're making a lot of money and we're making a lot of money and we're making a lot of money and we're making a lot of money and there may be a gap in the first couple of years a small gap but after that even if we don't get another grant the garage will pay for itself so these are good things to know and it was comforting to me because this was a big question for a while so I think that's it did I give anything now yeah and we're still working on these numbers and we're gonna continue to work with Bill and Jeanette I don't see in in the drawings anyway but I thought there was a consideration that if we did like a partnership with a private entity about towards renting the instead of just parking right on the top to do like some type of facilities or something where it could where we could lease the top for viewing and catered events and things like that and I'm sure more of a draw where we can I'm sure you can do that I think you would need to add I mean you're gonna be up high enough you yeah so the one thing that we are proposing to put in it to start with as a police substation that's important to remember and then we elected not to do like a public-private partnership with a commercial because we don't want to draw away from Main Street and there's other opportunities for more garages in downtown should they be required and you can actually see one of them potentially on this photo so if you look at this one on the far left side that's the parking lot by summer wind that is a really prime next public-private partnership location because you could redevelop that parking lot and recreate the area behind those buildings to actually be a pathway so that it looks nice and it's all organized and it's lit and it's sidewalked you can't see the river from the back of those buildings anyway so putting something there isn't going to block any river view but it's gonna enhance the back of the buildings where a lot of people enter because there's really it's hard to enter those dark horse and tweet from Main Street it's hard to park nearby I usually park in the back so but that could be a project that includes a garage so you could trade off you could say okay we're gonna because it is urban renewal and this is just very theoretical obviously but you could say okay you can have this parking lot you were going to build a garage and something else on it and now it's going to be another riverfront project to draw people down and also provide you know really more proximate parking to the square in the playground and you can see to those businesses on that west end of Main Street, East Main Street.
That I would love to see. I have sent this to you already, but I will resend it. Could you? Okay. So my question is with Level G. Did they do a spreadsheet on how they came up with their 504 stoles? Yes, yes. I have. I haven't. When did you send it to me? When it was done a while back, yeah. If you don't mind sending it to me again. Because I know there was one, and this is done predicated on now, and looking at the people that are going to be doing the upper town square, lower town square, right, that's going to obviously draw more people. And I think Level G needs to come back and look at that. And to Ken's point, in having been engaged with a parking garage probably about seven years ago, right, it's very easy to rent. It's about 4,000 square feet on the top, which could help. And maybe we wouldn't have that two-year gap, right, to pay, number one. Number two, I'm not real supportive of sprinkling garages around Riverhead as opposed to taking this one and making five stories, because the fifth story is where you're getting, the top story is where you're getting all the ground parking. All the infrastructure that goes in a parking garage, you're getting pieces. You're getting pieces of what was on the ground. So, and then I look at the market, and I'm glad to see some of the developers that are providing parking. But I would just like to see Level G come back when these other consultants are done and say, well, 504 isn't enough. And I know at that meeting we had several months ago, there was a study done prior, years ago. I don't remember the year. But they said we need 1,000. So I just want to, I just for my own edification need to. And I think we also, but I understand the idea of not sprinkling garages around. From a planning point of view, I'd have to look at more information to see if I agree with one spot only. But the important factor is the cost. Because you go up another floor, you're going to add. So it's basically 100 spaces of floor, and each space is 40,000. So you're going to add exponentially to that cost. Totally agree. Totally agree. And keep it within the lanes here. If you're programming, I'm looking in an ideal world, right? And to one of the greatest things Barry ever said was, don't do all this stuff if you're not going to program it, right? Yeah. Meaning, okay, and he was absolutely right. You're just going to have another gradual park. Yeah, it's really nice. Wait, wait. What do you mean? Nicer. Yeah. What I'm talking about, what it has been before we put reflections in there. Yes. You know, started to do that is what I'm talking about. We all know what that is. But if our goal in doing the town square, the lower town square, is to attract people, they're going to need parking. And those are the people that are going to pay on the weekends that extra fee for parking. And so that spreadsheet is important to me. Yeah, I'll send it to you again. And also how they came up with 500 and 4 schools. Because I look at... We're going market rate, you know, understood. And those people are going to want to play stuff. I'm not paying market rate. When I played market rate in the city, I was parking in my building. And this garage is planned to be modular. So it's a concrete, you know, precast concrete modular. And it will have a skin on it. The skin is what will cost, you know, how good you want. Or we can make that skin look with the budget. That's going to be the question. But obviously we would like it to look as good as that looks. Yeah. I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. I'm like I'm in school. I wanted to just mention one other point. Again, from a rendering that you had shown previously with a hotel on the right and that second parking lot that we're speaking about on the left. Is there a way in that rendering it had all kinds of tables and shops on either side by the hotel? Could they do the parking lot where it's like a mixed use where part of it might be storefront? The cafes and such? Can they do something like that where to... Bob's point, it doesn't look quite like a garage. Like part of it might have retail on the bottom. And that way it would have all of those shops on that side. But other parts of it could be for parking stall. So we did consider doing retail on the first level to sort of offset that. But we're afraid to draw away from Main Street. We want people to be on Main Street. If that was built on Main Street like we've seen pictures of ones in Florida. Yeah. It's all retail on the first floor and then it goes up. And when you're sitting back, exactly. You don't want to draw away from the town square and the area that you want people to come visit. No, that's what I'm talking about. On the new one, yes. You could absolutely do that. The second one, that's on the other side of the hotel. Yes. That's the whole idea. Maybe it will be wrapped with another hotel that has restaurants or things like that. Yeah, definitely. Yes. It could be done that way. We wouldn't build it, but we would work with a private developer to partner to develop the property that you own. Bob, when you refer to doing something on the upper level, are you referring? Are you referring to losing parking on that top level? Absolutely. And using it for structure for building, for enclosed, whatever? Then I'll tell you why. Because if you look at, if you took a year, let's just not be hypothetical. Let's say it's 4,000 square feet, right? That's X amount of spaces. That 4,000 square feet is easily worth a million dollars a year in rent. And it's going to be a lot more than we're going to get from the parking spaces. In addition, going up five stories. Is then you're going to have the view of the bay. Four stories, you're not going to have that. That's extremely attractive to a good operator who goes, wow, I want this view. This is a water view is very close to a 10 when it comes to people doing events. But do we want to compete with our local business owners? And you're all going to have to be mindful. This garage right behind it. Is a residential neighborhood. You have single family home. You can sound proof it if you're concerned. Do you want to be in the room? Not sound proof. You can just shadow that. That's something that you have to be in. I don't want to be, but somebody else may want to. This is a government project. I'm just looking at options. Like I said earlier, right? There's nothing definitive. I'm looking to pay this thing back. That's number one. It will help when I see the stalls. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. That's number one. I think it'll be comfortable that one way or the other. The other thing, too, is if we do get grant money, the garage cannot be for profit. Okay, well, that's good to know. So these are the things that we don't have. When you mix proprietary with governmental, government entity really does not engage in proprietary acts. The minute you do that, then we lose the ability for particular bond rates that a government entity enjoys. The bond rates are low if it's just government, not for profit. But isn't charging for parking for profit? No, because the cost of maintenance of that garage is going to be big. So you're going to want to put all of that into maintenance and operations costs and something breaks or you need to hire people. And all the numbers at NDC, has employees, what they would charge. You're allowed to rent parking spaces for an hour, two hours, or for the day, but you can't rent. We may not turn a profit. We may not turn a profit. And that's the significance of the work they're doing for us is they're doing the calculations, knowing the confines, that this is not a profitable business. We may not turn a profit. Well, it needs to pay for itself. That's the... That's the minimum that we want it to pay. Right. And just to, you know, not to say that we're not going to get the grant because I think we're in a very good position to get the grant this year. We got deemed a project of merit, which is very high level in that process, which is very competitive. It's national. How many applications? 600 applications. These are from cities with building bridges and all kinds of things. We're competing against them. We're doing all the work in-house, and we did really, we smashed it last year. And so we didn't get it. We're hoping that... This is our year. If we get it this year... The thing we thought about, which is interesting, is if we didn't get it this year, although we... And we would arguably be deemed a project of merit, and under the rules this year, we would automatically be applied. Next year, we wouldn't even have to reapply. But it could hold us up. That's my only concern. I want to make sure. So we... But in either case, it looks to me pretty good that we are going to not have to ask anybody to come out of pocket for this garage. And it was really... It was really the linchpin to the downtown one. We cannot do... Eliminate all that parking on the riverfront without doing the garage. So it's absolutely correct. So we know we have to do it. We're pleasantly surprised, I think, by the potential for it to cover itself. And we'll be even more pleasantly surprised if we get another $10 million towards it, because then it's an absolute no cost. It'll definitely be fine at that point. We're working on trying to figure out exactly what we should ask for the grant, because we want to ask for as little as possible so we can put money on other things. I'm being more risk-averse. Right. But that's okay. This is always how it works, because we're the yin and the yang, and we always get it done, so I'm not worried about it. So anyway... Can I ask one more question? Of course. I'm a big fan of the Buffett. This is a good opportunity. Chip, can you move... I have it. I have it. Oh, you have it. Can you just move it back to where you have the town square and the hotel?
An arrow? An arrow key here? No, all right. Hold on. Oh, wait. It would go down. There you go. We're spazzing out right now. It's not a PowerPoint, so it's... No, it's not. That's right. Here it is. Oh. That one? Yeah, come back. Yeah, I just want to... And now I need... Go towards East End Arts. Okay. So I have a question. Right there. That's great. The hotel is bumped out further than the science center, which is great. This is a very old rendering. Okay. Very old rendering. Okay. So it's not... This is all conceptual. Now we're actually doing real design. Okay, so here's... All right, so in the real design, I think it would be really good in terms of activating that lower town square that those two buildings end at the same point. And if we have to, if that's going to be a restaurant on that end, we consider allowing that square footage up on the roof. And the reason why I say that is because you've got... You know, to have a bump out and not have a clear rectangle, you know, to what we're looking to do. So when it would be good to look at that... I just think that's the optimal location for our skating rink. If we can do that, it comes up temporary, rolls up, pulls that, stored, put out when you want. I think... I don't know if... I don't think it's going to compete with the kind of hockey. I mean, if it's just for like little... I don't think so. ...rinky-dink skating. Downtown's going to need it. Just like in Greenport, like that little... I don't know if it's... We would have to... We can ask them and see what they think, but I think it would just be absolutely amazing to be able to go down there in the winter and, you know... And that's another reason to be... ...enjoy the outdoors... ...a lot of the squat. ...in a season that we know... Yeah. I mean, that could be... And you can see here, like if you look here, this is... Let me see if I can get the cursor going. So like here's the walkway. This all becomes pedestrianized streets. There's no curbs. This is like a four... ...step up to this level. And here's the ramping and step ups to the other level. So that's how that works. So you get the flood mitigation, but you... You know, these still are built to be, you know, floatable, as is this, you know, depending on how it ultimately gets designed, which we don't know because we haven't started that final process. So that protrusion in the hotel is just in a preliminary... This is super old. Okay, that's very old. This is from the activation plan, so it's already... And East End Arts is going to be elevated also. Yeah. Okay. We're going to have to do that. The entire front, of East End Arts, has to come up, and all the buildings have to be relocated forward so they're protected from the floods, too. Otherwise, that becomes a bathtub because this building on here, this is Munchnick's building on the far end of that, and so you don't want a big bathtub in here because that just will not be a good thing. I would really like to see the rooftop utilized. Yeah. I mean, the view from up there, that's the... I'm quite... That's the thing right now. You go to other big towns, and everything is a rooftop restaurant or just outdoor seating. So there's rules with that on residential buildings, but on commercial buildings, they can be there. But on hotels, they have... Correct. Oh, no, you can... It's a commercial building. It's different than a residential building, but yeah, I 100% agree with you on that. I mean, we have this giant asset. We've all been looking at it for our whole lives, and we've got one chance to do it. Right. Exactly. And that's why I'm so... Like, I think about all the things that had happened in the past and when we didn't get grants or we did get grants, and I'm just happy that it all worked out the way it did because this, I think, is the right plan. And I appreciate... I think this kind of meeting, I think more of these on this project should... Yeah. ...moving forward. Well, we're going to... We should have, as we progress, the... Yep. As often as you need us to come, we can do that. Do you have any projected time when we can get that? I think we... I mean, in consultation with LBF and all that, we think, and even Barry Long, we think the end of the year you could break ground on these. We have funding. She was asking on the raised grant. On the raised grant. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So it's due February 28th. It's awarded on June 28th. It's already seared in my brain. Oh, good. February 28th would be... What was that date? Due date. February 28th is the due date. It'll be submitted before that because it's right around when my first grandchild is going to be born. Oh. That's great. Yeah. Yep, yep. So I want to be ready for that. We're already working on it. And the building business... BCA. BFJ? Yeah, not BFJ. B... B... Yeah. The new company. We just hired... We just changed consultants. The grant... The raised grant requires, and we talked about this at the last meeting, the benefit-cost analysis. That's a separate document. It's done by an economist. We had it done for one... With one guy who was wonderful, but we decided... that someone who had done this exact work before would be a better pick, and so we went ahead and picked that person. It's $25,000, but that is covered by another grant, so it's not costing the taxpayers. Very good. All right. Everybody okay? All right. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We appreciate the update and info. Yep.
All right. We are now looking for... Banking. Welcome to banking. Prodivision Matters. Thank you. ...surrounding possible amendment to Chapter 289, regulating the towing of vehicles from privately owned, publicly accessed parking lots, i.e. shopping centers. And we will need Eric Howard and Danielle Hurley. You can do it. I think he's going to the last item. Oh, we're good. I think he's switching the order. No problem. I've got it. We have cannabis item four. The last item. Yeah. It's okay. Oh, you've got a different... Want to do cannabis in some heat? Here. It should go quick. You want to do cannabis now? Yep. Okay. All right. Then we will do Prodivision Matters Take one. Pass it down. ...surrounding possible amendment to Chapter 301. That's the actual... ...Rothwell and Prudente. So what we want to do first is just to kind of update our new council women. We have a working committee for cannabis. And so they've met a number of times. We, to rewind back further, Governor Crum, at the time, legalized cannabis. We kind of felt at that time that we put the cart before the horse. And so we did have a split vote to opt out on cannabis, but it is permissible in the town of Riverhead now. And there are basically two entities that we'll continuously talk about, and one is retail and the other is consumption. They are treated identical, so when we write our town codes, when we talk about... like distances and saturation rates, it doesn't matter whether it is a retail shop or a consumption place, the rules apply the same. But the Cannabis Committee basically had met a number of times to determine what the town side of the legal entities was, time, place, and manner. And so we have put together a nice town code that was very protective. Our biggest concerns was keeping the drug-free school zones, 1,000 feet away from schools, protecting our town parks, properties, churches, all municipal grounds, daycare centers, obviously the schools. And so we have put distances and implied it all to it. We had created a mapping program initially, and on our first creation of the mapping program, we were under the presumption that we were looking at potentially 60 parcels or so, but we made an error. And so we correct our errors. We made an error that the residential distances from a lot of these places were not applied to it. And so there really weren't, in the end, when we applied the residential distances, which is about 1,000 feet from a residence, we didn't have 60 potential parcels available. We cut it down as little as potentially four. So that really becomes, it almost gives us the impression that we're like spot zoning to put them, and we just don't have the right to put them. We just, we can regulate time, place, and manner, but we have to do it in a fair and partial manner. If we left our, I believe that if we left our regulations, our zoning the way it is, it's not fair and partial, and I don't want the state of New York to tell us where we're gonna end up having these facilities. I want us to dictate it and be able to control the narrative throughout the process. What we did to try to, we looked at reducing the residential restrictions, from like 1,000 to 800 to 750 to 500. We kept going down, and it really wasn't making any parcels available, because the biggest issue was that residential parcels pretty much touch most commercial parcels in the town of Riverhead. See, if we go down to 20 feet, if they're touching, connecting, it ends up eliminating most of the parcels. So we came up with this idea of creating corridors, like commercial corridors. We basically start in Wady River, and it goes through, from 25A in Wady River till it joins through 25, continues from Route 25 to Route 58, through Route 58 and then back on Route 25 till we reach the South Hold line. And I'll kinda go over the corridors in just a moment, but by eliminating the residential restrictions on the commercial corridors, it suddenly made about 144 parcels appear in the town of Riverhead. When we say that number, it seems like a big number, but we always must counterbalance by saying, we have implemented that the number of parcels that we've had in the town of Riverhead is a saturation rate. The saturation rate is basically 2,500 feet from the left of you, 2,500 feet to the right of you, where you cannot have an additional consumption shop or retail shop. So therefore, meaning that we're not gonna end up having like one shopping center with three cannabis places inside it. Once one that's gonna be based on a first come, first serve, once they get their zoning, their building permits from the building department, they'll mark it out. And then once they get their zoning, they'll mark it out. So that's gonna be a saturation rate of 2,500 feet to the east, west, whatever direction. And then basically that's gonna eliminate anybody else from selecting a facility within the same boundaries of that saturation limit. So we would not be able to have a retail shop and a consumption shop all in one? Correct. Like if you had a seafood market and attached to it was a restaurant where they cooked the seafood that they also sold publicly at the market. Correct. That cannot be done. Correct. Cannabis, okay. And that's under our current town zone. We're in town zoning right now as well. And that's under the MRTA also. I thought I read that under that. Yeah, you can't purchase and smoke in the same location. And you can't even have alcohol and purchase or smoke in the same location. So what we did is we created commercial corridor. So in the end it comes up to about 144 parcels. But due to the saturation rate of the distances of 2,500, really in commercial corridor one, we'll just give it as examples. That's the number that we have to run through. Only one in corridor one. Yeah. So what happens in corridor one, it starts at the Brookhaven town line on Route 25A. And basically in terms of a number of parcels available, you will probably have one or two which would really be like Mace Farm along Route 25A if they haven't decided to change their use. And then you would have like the East Wind catering hall shops at East Wind where they could potentially have one facility in there. But because of the distances of the 2,500, you can't have both. So it's basically where it gets worse. So the reality is when in the entire distance of corridor number one, you are only going to be permissible to have one location. So there would potentially be only one in Windy River. Then when you come into the commercial corridor number two, you're only going to have one again because of the distance. So as you go through basically Calverton arriving at Route 58, you're only going to be permissible to have one there. When you get to the commercial corridor three, now there's a longer distance. And there mathematically, meaning if you started at the very first parcel in commercial corridor number three and it worked your way down every 2,500 feet, put one in, it's never going to line up that way. But mathematically, I think you could end up having potentially four. It may be mathematically five, but it's unrealistic that that could happen because reality is it's not going to be the first parcel. It's going to be. Once somebody selects any location, it's going to go 2,500 in each direction, which might put you in the middle of a shopping center and so forth. When you go into commercial corridor four, you have area potentially one. And then in commercial corridor number five, potentially one in Jamesport. This is a balance. This is about saying that we weren't taking these type of facilities consumption or retails and putting them all in one spot. Brookhaven basically put everybody in the industrial zone and sent everybody traveling. And then we're going to have a lot of people who are not eating dusters all the time. We're trying to do a more balanced that it's available throughout the town. It's limited by the saturation rate. Yes, there are 144 parcels, but the reality is when you go through this, I think realistically you're probably going to max out somewhere around six. If you had one in each corridor and some one Route 58, I don't really see that you're going to get six. That's even if the state gives six licenses, you know, into the town of Riverhead. But the saturation rate, I just remind my, you fellow council members, that that's really what controls the entity. So you're not going to have 144 cannabis stores because of the saturation. You're never even going to have six, quite honestly. And I don't think so either. The market's not going to support it. Once one or two open, then, you know, it becomes very competitive. And then when three comes in, it's less competitive in the market value. And I think that people realize that it drops them, you know. But we're staying firm with, you know, 1,000 feet from schools, drug-free school zones, staying away from our churches, daycare centers, public parks, all of our, you know, beaches, municipal buildings, and so forth. We kept all the restrictions. So really, this proposal ultimately eliminates the residential restrictions along the commercial corridors only, making more sites available from basically east to west of the town. What about if there's one of those tobacco stores that's selling the smoke shots? Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Those fall into the regular retail shops, so they don't affect any distances or . Right. Can we keep them from them? Because, you know, I wouldn't want to see a smoke shop and then a cannabis shop in the same shopping center. I don't think that would be beneficial to a particular shopping center. But it's two very different restrictions, because, you know, a smoke shop is just simply retail, but the cannabis is a licensed, you know, entity, specifically. So I don't know that we can do that. But I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. Yeah. Something to look into. Also, I want to keep in mind that when we say 144 parcels, we have to be realistic that many of these parcels have current leasing agreements, which is, so, means that they're not going to be regularly available unless somebody buys out their lease. Many of these parcels may have outstanding loans, so people have mortgages on the property. So when you have a mortgage, it's FDIC backed, the federal government, cannabis is not legalized government. So if you have a shopping center that was developed and has a current mortgage, you are not going to be permitted to have a cannabis facility in there because it's backed by the federal government, your laws. So those are things that, you know, just because the parcels say that they're permissible, it doesn't mean, you know, we may find out over time that as people go through the town and they start looking at 144 parcels, they may find that there are very few available. But implementing this code, it changes itself as every year goes by because leases expire, you know, and somebody may say, okay, there might be a pizza restaurant in one place and when the lease expires, you know, they may say, I want to open up the cannabis, you know, because there's a high demand for it. There's no shops available. So we just don't know, like, so, but I think this is still very restrictive. It protects everything. I think it makes more. There's more parcels available and I think that I'm in tune for the kind of watch and see if we pass something like this and we all agree on this. It basically, it basically, it's kind of a watch and see how many more parcels available and just kind of monitor it before we, you know, continue to reduce any other restrictions if necessary. But what I may or may not have left out questions wise. I think you explained it really well and I'll just add to what you said. I mean, it's, you know, there are a number of things that we can do about it. shopping centers the anchor tenant makes a decision not the landlord and they when when these leases are done they will say i'm not going to be here if x y and z are here you're not allowed to do this that's one i i just have one question you know the corridor idea fine the an example right let's say a location does fit but they're short shy of 200 feet door-to-door to a resident do we have to then follow state law no no the commercial part of the elimination trumps no the reason why i asked that because it's like it's no different than like if you want to open up a liquor store right and the church is 200 door-to-door is 200 feet local law it doesn't trump that if it's 180 feet if the town in that particular zoning districts prohibits let's say a bar you can't have it you can't have a store next to a church according to sla that's my question i'm just asking that well chip can you can you bring up one corridor one and i'm just might explain some of you this might answer some questions i'm not sure maybe i understand your question but like when we look at commercial corridor one you see that we have the waiting river school okay and so when we go a thousand feet from the school the school is you know is uh you know essentially uh behind phil's restaurant as you start to go down you know waiting river manor but when you put that thousand feet around it you've eliminated a series of corridors on on route 25a not because of now the residential restrictions because there's a school there is a church right there on dogwood so that church you see comes out and it touches one two three four parcels right on you know on the south side of the school and it's not a church it's a church right on the south side of the school and it's not a church it's a cross road so it's eliminated that and that's why you see when when chip's got that close up it really only shows about one parcel right in that area because it's been eliminated by the school restrictions and the church restrictions no i know again i probably didn't explain it right sorry right no and i you know just and i'm gonna i'm gonna give a hypothetical okay let's say riverview loves and mcdermott wanted to hold and and i know it's not allowed in dc1 but let's say that it was and somebody applied for a license there but the church is door-to-door for the church and the church is there is 180 feet not 200 which is what the cannabis commission is saying it has to be you're saying to me because the same reason they cannot have liquor in because you know they because it's within it's less than 200 feet feet door-to-door at river view loves they which if you're saying if somebody got licensed for cannabis they would be able to do it because local law trumps cannabis law. Our code as it presently stands and as proposed to be amended and presented before you are more strict and stringent. That is my question. Who trumps who? Town law or state cannabis law? If property that one allows and the other doesn't and let's say the state allows it but the town doesn't, does the state win and vice versa? If the town allows it but the state doesn't? The town is always going to advocate its right to zone. In addition, under the MRTA, it specifically stated that the town had the right to implement cannabis law. So if the town has the right to implement time, place, and matter restrictions including saturation, that's what we did. So we, the town, would always fight to uphold its zoning laws. It's a fight you will always have and it's always worth having. I totally get that but what I'm saying is you can't put a liquor store next to a church. So what I'm saying is if one of these parcels, right, it wouldn't qualify next to a church. What I'm saying is if it's across the street but it's 180 feet not 200 which is the New York State rule. Same like SLA. They said it has to be 200 feet door to door. All I'm asking is if there's I think we're measuring from parcel to parcel. Are you suggesting that to measure from door to door? You're giving me an example. No, Ken, all I'm doing is I'm giving an example. Okay. I'm giving an example. Okay. I'm giving an example. If somebody wants to go here but it's, let's say, 180 feet from a church door to door and the Cannabis Commission has said it can't, it has to be 200 feet away. In other words, if you just let it go. Yes, we can make the law less stringent. Correct. Yes. So it's We can't let it go. Yeah, we can't lessen the state law. If the state law sets a distance of 200 feet, we can't go one foot. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's just Yeah, that's just Sorry, I didn't know. We can make it more restrictive, but we can't make it less restrictive comparative to the state. So we would really like to move this forward. I don't know. Now, I will say, and for Ken, before you make any decision, at our meeting, so, and because our two councilwomen might not have been where, how the, the Cannabis Committee was comprised, it was comprised of a member of all the civic groups were able to attend the meetings to participate. We put our Representing. We had representatives from the school district to come. We had the police department. We had CAP. And then we also did, yep, Chamber. Then we also did is, we also selected certain residents, like, because there's not a civic group in Aqaba, so we had, like, you know, Jim Flood came and things like that to participate. We tried to make sure that somebody was concerned about every part of the town. Okay. And then in addition to having those, we did allow potential retailers and people within the industry come, actively speak, actively participate in this. And this room was filled the other night. And I'm going to say that everybody in this room from both sides were, were, were, seemed quite pleased at that, you know, maintaining the restrictions from schools and churches and parks, but still granting an opportunity for the businesses to have a place to go. So it was pretty good. So it was pretty well-balanced. It was. I don't think anybody objected. And it was one of many cannabis forums that we've held. And we allow everyone to speak. And there's an actual exchange that goes back and forth the entire night. So if you, if you're a resident and you want to ask a question, you get an answer. And we talk about it on the record. And we've had several of those. Very productive meetings. Yeah. I mean, I understand that there are other things. I mean, I understand that there are other things. I understand that there are residents that are totally against this. However, we're at a point that it's here to repeat what you said. We do not want the state telling us where these places have to go. We want to be able to spend your time. We can't set restrictions and make it nowhere available in the town and go, oh, no, we allow it. But there's no way to do it. Kind of did it the first time. Yeah. But, but it was, it was done in error. Unintentionally. It was done in error. Right. Unintentionally. And I made a commitment in the beginning. When we realized the error, I said, well, we'll recambine. And we did. And the councilman has created an excellent record in support of all the town's efforts in the drafting. sole public record the only thing I would say I think the 2,500 feet between each one I would like to see that lessened only you know make that shorter just because you know I was here and I thought that I thought the meeting was great you know a lot of good people here you know and people that had already gone around and seen that you can't do anything in different places what do you call it was what a piece one was one of them you know that they are in had gone there and East Wind just possibly having one I would just like to see that reduced because 2,500 feet is six and a third and it's like seven football fields you know between places and I you know if you got one in each corridor and I agree with you first of all six bakeries aren't going to make it in the town of Riverhead six of most of anything are not going to make it a gas stations you know but I just think that I would like to see that reduced I think we should roll out smaller I know and see the impact why because when we when we ran the numbers so in corridors one two four and five you can only have one the route 58 ! corridor not to correct you not to correct you but the potential possibility and we and by the way Jason gets really the bulk of the credit for this I mean he did most all of the work but in corridor three the route 58 corridor there's potential for probably seven but again depending on where they locate the likelihood is probably more like four or five so when you do the math and we're a town of only 36,000 residents and you're providing a potential a real potential for eight cannabis retailers or consumption sites that's a lot for 36,000 residents so I wouldn't I would caution the town board and roll it out like this first and then weigh the impacts you know I I appreciate your example you know we're a town of 36,000 residents and we have Costco and we have BJ's and I mean I'm not getting the the use Costco and BJ's not everybody smokes marijuana or so it's a lot less and I agree with you you're never gonna see six here you can't you're literally literally literally literally literally literally literally I also would like to just see the effects of when a store opens. It is not permissible in a town of Southhold. So if somebody would open up on Route 50, you are going to be serving those residents of Southhold that choose to purchase retail marijuana. They're going to come to that area. I also think that I just want to see how it affects, like, if there's one store, does it have a major traffic impact of their lines? If it's in a shopping center, is it affecting the store owners on either side because there's a line outside and there's no parking? There's a lot of environmental impact, so to speak, around the storefront that I think you want to watch and see. But it might be minimal. It might not be. Just like the supervisor said the other day, we were concerned about Columbia Care many years ago, and it's had no impact. But I think you've got to watch and see a little bit. I agree. I think that's why. I think that's how we should present it up. Let's see how it goes. And if we need to adjust, we can adjust. This is new territory. I've also seen a lot of advertising on social media that you can actually, I guess, get it online and delivered right to your door. There's a lot of people that might participate in that recreation, and they don't want to be seen going to a store. Correct. Absolutely. I would just say. I'd order all mine home. I would just say. I know that there are a lot of medicinal uses people have for this. Besides recreational, I understand all of that. I just get concerned being from Wading River, the idea that right on 25A, right up front, I think they're better suited if East Wind and that shopping center wanted it because they have the parking. They have the ability to handle that. There are long lines. I don't know about you guys, but I've seen that in other states. Big, long lines. I know for the purchase of this. Well, they'd have to go through the planning board process. I'm just concerned because there are a lot of schools. It isn't just the Wading River schools. But, but, but, we keep the schools. No, we're buffering schools. I just don't, I guess I just don't like the idea of it being front and center, right there on pretty much the main traffic area of Wading River. I just don't think it's a good idea. We have to bounce throughout the whole town. You can't say, I don't want it in Wading River because I live in Wading River, so I want it in Jamesport. I don't want it in Jamesport. You have to make it balance. And you can't make it balance. discriminate about permitted use you can't discriminate it and make it only in the back door situation
then you then you're really doing spot zoning for individual landowners and parcel owners and then if you go down that road you think about it too because in my mind I think of marijuana and alcohol as being very similar and you've got Phil's restaurant right next to the school they serve alcohol does that have any effect on the children in the school absolutely it's the same thing whether it's a beer or whether it's a joint and I sell beer right across the street at the gas station across the street from the school I think a child cannot go to person say goodbye they can't walk out no we can have some bagel by the beer in a gas station but they can easily go have somebody buy them the marijuana in the shop same with the beer same with alcohol kids get it all the time Denise I will tell you that one of the gentlemen that was here for this for the last meeting said Easton would be great but he's already gone there and they're not allowing it my whole thing with this is and I understand and I totally respect the slow rollout and everything like that my thing with this is I don't care if it's you know where it is the more of these places where people can get marijuana that's regulated by the state so there's no fentanyl in it is where I'm at that's all where I'm at because the fentanyl laws in New York State are pathetic right and I know the DA is trying to change them and you I know you must be aware of that it's a rally for me yeah eight ounces which kills 131,000 people a thing in hell worth of fentanyl and that's why I have no problem and I there's no way six of well let's see Bob well I know you say let's see but let's see is how you know how much time you already have a bunch of applications I'm looking to roll this out immediately I'm looking for the town board to tell me I can move it forward with the publishing house my point is this okay you already have a flood of applications you roll this out this is and I I think great, you roll it out. And if people come back and say, well, there's only two places to do it, how quick are you going to make some adjustments? Same as we've done. We reconvene and we readdress it. But what's available today, even what I was trying to say earlier, is what's available today, without us taking any action, may be very different next year or five years from now, just from the expiration of leases that are currently in use by landowners. If you're the owner of a building and you currently have a tenant and the tenant has two years left, I'm a wannabe marijuana retailer. I can offer you as owner an exorbitant rent that you pass along and buy out your existing tenant. Now I get to go in. In a perfect world, it's more wait until the lease ends, expires, and then the landowner gives it to the consumption place. Right. And then the landowner gives it to the consumption place. There was also somebody here that I spoke to that owns two strip malls on Route 110. Owns them. Okay? And I can tell you, his anchor tenant's in their lease because he wants that anchor tenant, the guaranteed long-term lease. Not going to happen. Even though he supports it, he owns two of them on 110. Can't do it. So I don't, you know, my whole thing is, my thing is about fentanyl. My second thing is, fine. You know, roll this out. I think the $2,500 is too much. Roll it out. But if you find out in a month that you've got one, and the one that we had, the guy doesn't even want to do it, which is up by Tanger, what's the, then you're going to go right, convene immediately? We'll do whatever we, yeah. Yeah. I would like to see the $2,500 drop down. $1,500 because it's still. Well, we got a lot of support, strong support for this as presented to you. Am I right? Yes. It really was, nobody was objecting. Yeah. Everybody at the cannabis forum, everybody thought it was very fair. People have spoken. It's gone with me. I mean, we didn't get pushback from the retailers. No. Worst case scenarios, we revisit it, and if we have to change it, we change it. But I agree. I think how it's set up is appropriate right now. Let's see how it plays out. Just taking baby steps and monitoring as you go along, as you. Right. Less than any restrictions. I apologize for not explaining that about me. That's all right. So the next step, so the councilman says we would have to put in the resolution, and then we would have to go to publishers for public hearing. And then we'll have all the residents. And then we also can base some changes on what the public perception is as well. Great. Great. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. This brings us towards our last item on the work session agenda. And it's matters surrounding possible amendment to chapter 289 regulating the towing of vehicles from privately owned publicly accessed parking lots. And councilor Hurley, if you would come up please. And. Hello everybody. Educate us on this. Okay. So just some background from where this idea started. About two months ago I got some calls from Riverhead police that there were residents that were returning to their cars that were parked in shopping centers, which are privately owned, publicly accessed. And they were coming out and their cars were gone. So they didn't know where they went. One case they thought they were stolen. They contacted PD. PD didn't know where they were. Eventually the people were able to locate what they detailed as small unclear signage. They finally figured out where their car was, that it got towed. And when they went to go collect their car they were charged about $600 to get their car back. There was also an opinion article on this topic in the local newspaper entitled Overly Aggressive, which did not provide a detailed summary of the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. Really just a chunk of the information about the events that took place in the town. to the code revision committee and what came of that after a few different drafts is adding part 5 to chapter 289 it's based mostly on Suffolk County's towing policy but it's tailored to meet the needs of the town of Riverhead and also the feedback that I received from the code revision committee so essentially what it is is a plan so like I said it's really shopping centers that are privately owned and they have public publicly accessed parking lots the owner of the shopping center let's say if they want to tow a car without the owners consent they have to follow the notification requirements in 289-68 which would include conspicuous signage so you would have to be at least four feet high have certain lettering so that it can be clear to the people who are parking there the signage must contain a list of reasons why a towing may occur the applicable hours that the towing could occur the name and the number of the tow company that's been contracted by the shopping center and the property owners name so going through that the property owners are to to enter into contracts with towing companies which they already do but when this is done the owners need to give a letter to the tow company which details their agreement the cost that they're going to be charging the location that they're surveying and this code will require a copy of that letter given by the shopping center owner to the tow company to also be filed with the town clerk NPD and the towing companies, which they already do. But when this is done, the owners need to give a letter to the tow company, which details their agreement, the costs that they're going to be charging, the location that they're surveying. And this code will require a copy of that letter given by the shopping center owner to the tow company to also be filed with the town clerk and PD so that we're aware and PD is aware of what agreement and who is, what tow company is canvassing what parking lots. To that same end, the tow companies themselves must, in order for them to operate in these situations, they have to have a contract with the property owner. And they can only tow if the owner of the property is present on, or their owner's representative is present and requests the tow. Okay. So the tow company itself, it will be given a seizure tow authorization by the property owner, which will give the date and time of the tow, the location of the tow, the reason for the tow, the cost and where they, the car owner could find their vehicle. So the owner will give that to the tow company. The tow company will have that signed authorization from the owner. They'll tow the vehicle. And then after the tow is complete, they'll take that that tow authorization that's signed by the owner and they'll deliver it immediately to PD. So now PD is again aware that a vehicle was just towed and the details of when, where the description of the vehicle and where the person can locate the vehicle so that if the owner, if, a shopper or whatever, what have you is coming out and their car's not there and they call PD PD can now say, yeah, we just received the tow affidavit from rapid recovery or whatever. This is where your car is. Um, you know, if the, if the individual doesn't already see the signage that's going to be required to be posted. So going, getting to the fees, um, the fees are going to be capped at 3 75, which is the municipal tow fee that we currently have. And the only additional fee that we're going to allow is a maximum of $20 a day for the storage of the vehicle. And, um, there is clear language in here as well that the owner cannot profit from the toes, um, which, and, um, the penalties for violation of this by either the, um, property owners or the tow companies, uh, ranges from 500 to $1,500. And this code would not apply to vehicles that were deemed to be abandoned, um, which are dealt with by highway being towed. Um, in that instance, what happens is we, we have shopping centers in town and let's say, uh, I know one area where it has happened is where the, uh, Chittney bus picked people up on route 58 in front of the shopping center. People will leave their car there and maybe go into the city for the weekend and then come back and then just need to drop some more. If I did, they get in their car. I'm right away. So this was part of it. Part of it is people leaving their cars parked for sale in parking stalls and leave it on there 24 hours a day until the vehicle sells. And we also back when I was still working with the police department, we had a, uh, a parking lot across the street from diggers that was posted parking for store X only. And the store X hired a or didn't hire. They went into contract with a tow company and the tow guy, uh, uh, I would sit around the corner and watch as soon as his car pulled in and parked and got out and didn't go into store X, maybe went into store Z. He went over, hooked the car and towed it away. And this poor guy, you know, poor people were coming out five minutes later and that car is gone and they're like, what happened? Somebody stole it. And it was just, it was almost like a scam to me. I mean, we, we had to deal with the people coming into the police department and they were so angry that this happened. So this kind of allows that not to happen and gives some teeth, but the town to be able to guide and monitor the tow companies that try to do stuff like that. That's exactly right. I completely favor this. I think I know you put a lot of work into it and I appreciate it. I think it was well done. Thank you. And it caps off the fines overall to keep them in a pair. So it does. The fine is the same as what the police department charges for an impound. So great. Thank you. So I have the permission to publish and post. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. Board. Does anybody have anything else that maybe I know it's not on the agenda. We shouldn't talk about it, but if there's something that came out of today that you still want to discuss, we certainly can. If we're all, I would just like to say that I love that you moved the meeting down here to the morning session. We are sorry. And you're going to be more engaged with anybody that sits here when you're sitting here than sitting up there. And it's even better. Two, when you get developers coming in with maps and they're setting, we can see it, you know, we're, we're right there. So thank you. I appreciate that. That's the way it was always done before. I remember when it was like that, it was just, it was something that was done and they got away from it and I wanted to bring it back. So great job. Okay. Um, well thank you everybody. Uh, we appreciate you listening in. If you're on channel 22, uh, if you're in the audience, thank you for coming down. And, uh, that's the end of our work session agenda today. And do I need to. Uh, make a motion. Motion. Okay. Motion to, uh, and today's work session and second it. Okay. All in favor. Aye. All opposed. Nay. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.