Full Transcript

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you. Do we have any announcements this morning from our council members? No. I do have one. We are going to have a forum on the downtown on May 19th. That's what you're saying? Yeah, May 19th at 6. Are we doing that? At 6 o'clock at Town Hall. Okay. So if you like. If you want to weigh in on what's going on downtown, come on down. It would be a great opportunity just for a wonderful update on all the progress that we've made and we're ready to put shovels in the ground. So I think it's going to be a very good positive program that we're going to see. Just give a chance to give full updates on everything from East End Arts to the town square and so forth. So it's great. It starts here today with this project. There is one thing I just want to mention. I met with the... I met with the Disability Advisory Committee last night and one of the things they're looking for, just for the public at large, if anybody is interested in any jobs, they're always seeking new employees and it's a wonderful career to have. East End Disability Associates, everyone. Just check it out. Thank you. Thanks, Denise. All right. With that said, we'll just go to our open session. Our very first item is with Ms. Wendy Weiss with the Eastern Arts Council. Wayne from DXA Studios. A matter surrounding lifting and relocation of the building of Eastern Arts Council. With Councilman Kern and Ms. Thomas. I'd like to introduce everyone to our board president, Frank Lentini. Frank has been an integral part of all of this since he so bravely took the seat of president. And he's been really instrumental in working with everything moving forward throughout this time in flux. So we're really lucky to have him. Thanks, Frank. Thank you, Wendy. And nice to see some of you again and nice to meet some of you for the first time. You know, I'm a big fan of your work. I'm a big fan of your work. You know, just noting that I'm really excited today to walk through the presentation. You know, I think the team has been working really diligently and collaboratively on a vision that we really think will advance both East End Arts and also downtown Riverhead. We're really excited to be able to show you what we have today. If I could just set the table a little bit. The reason we are working on this project is because we knew we needed to move the buildings at East End Arts up and out of the floodplain so they do not wash away. Okay. And so, well, when we... When we thought about doing that, the idea became where should they go and the idea of having East End Arts really weigh in on that and decide what their future looks like became, you know, important. So that's why we worked with East End Arts. We have a grant to cover the cost of the study that DXA did. East End Arts selected DXA and the board agreed to that and now we're here to show you what the layout could look like. And so that's just so the public understands what we're... How we got here. Just to expand on that because the public always says, oh, they're building a new town square, they're redoing and everything is going to, you know, flood out and drown under the work. The entire projects, everything that we're doing from the town square, East End Arts, the new hotel, everything is flood mitigation. It's all designed by the Army Corps of Engineers. So all the preparations, everything that we're doing is part of, you know, the whole process of flood mitigation. So that's why we're not going to... We're not just raising you to protect you. It's the whole landscape and everything. And people are going to learn today that it is all a part of the entire flood mitigation project. So as we're going forward in the future, you know, that we're all protected in everything that we do and our investment down there. The preservation is appreciated. Okay. Well, my name is Wayne Norbeck. I'm a partner at DXA Studio Architects and we're thrilled to be part of this project. It's a very exciting opportunity for East End Arts. And also, I think, for the... The town of Riverhead. And not only to think about how the buildings can be sort of solved from a technical point of view from the flood plain, but also in terms of envisioning how this opportunity lets us sort of create a whole new campus and plan for the future of the organization. So we'll walk you through today what we've prepared. The first slide is simply showing the existing conditions and the current campus of East End Arts in the context of the flood. Okay. And then this is a view of the current campus looking along Main Street to the Benjamin House and the Corwin House. Benjamin House is on the left, Corwin House is on the right. And that's the entrance to the East End Arts campus. And a couple of photographs for context showing the different buildings. We have the Corwin House on the upper left, Benjamin House in the upper center. And then the backs of those buildings are the buildings that were built in the early 2000s. Okay. And then the backs of those two buildings as you go down a pathway towards the water. And then also on the campus is this really great little barn, which I think presently is used for some storage for the town. And then there's the carriage house, which is part of the programming at East End Arts. And then also the schoolhouse, which is also on the property. Most of these buildings have been relocated at one time or another. The Corwin House and the Benjamin House are original structures that are important. From a sort of preservation point of view to maintain frontage along Main Street. And that's going to be incorporated into the plan that we show you. So this next page is simply a site plan showing the existing condition as it is. What's important to note here are the elevations, the kind of heights of the topography. And so at the rear of the site, the south end of the site, we're down around 4.0. And then at the bottom, we have the

in terms of elevation. And up at Main Street, we kind of go between 13 and 12.6 on the edges of the site. And the goal is to get the site up to 13 or 13.5 in order to get to the proper elevation to avoid any kind of flood issue. This next page on page 8 is showing the existing campus in the context of the new buildings that are under construction or under wet. And this is the site that we're going to be building. And we're going to be building the new housing project to the east. And we just wanted to show this kind of in reference to the scale of the campus versus those projects. And thinking about how that, the interaction of those buildings works with our project. This is a perspective view from Main Street showing what it will be like when those buildings are completed without doing any moving yet. And so we wanted to. In terms of planning, really think about how we mitigate between those existing structures and the new structures and create sort of a buffer and also an identity for East End Arts. The next page is now getting into the kind of strategy of how we want to deal with the kind of elevation changes on the site. And our thought was that instead of sort of bringing up the majority of the site or the whole site to that kind of goal of 13.5. In terms of elevation. That we would try to locate that, the raising of the topography up on the northern end of the site towards Main Street. And that gives us an opportunity for two things. One is to create a sort of campus for East End Arts on the northern side of the site. And then on the southern end of the site, it leaves it open as an opportunity for kind of an outdoor theater project. Which has been proposed previously. And gives a lot of flexibility for the city. And then on the southern end of the site, it leaves it open as an opportunity for kind of an outdoor theater project. And gives a lot of flexibility in terms of how that can be realized. And by doing this, the goal really is to mitigate the amount of soil that we need to bring onto site and to achieve that topography. So in the next image, we start to get into, we're going to go through a series of slides here that shows how the buildings will be moved. So on the bottom left, what we're showing in shadow here is the Corwin House moving up. in part to accommodate an access road that is next to the hotel but we also need to maintain the kind of street frontage of the Corwin house along Main Street kind of historic preservation purposes the the Benjamin house will stay in it's a pretty much it's an exact position and plan but it'll simply move up to the 13.5 level and then what we're showing here is the carriage house which has a specific programmatic relationship to the Benjamin house will move up and over kind of flip around and then we're also moving the the school house up in front of the dotted line and then the barn which we envision as being as being part of the little bit more part of the visual arts programming at East Sun arts would be closer to the Corwin house so we can create that kind of relationship so the the carriage house on the barn sort of flip around and and we into these new positions all the structures will be of course at this 13.5 elevation for flood purposes so page 13 this is showing the the campus as we imagine it uh the goal really here is to continue to have this open space in between the corwin house and the benjamin house which is the current sort of framing of the site and we want to maintain that and that's very important but then to think of almost like a quad in almost like a college campus kind of situation where we end up with a central space which can be used as a plaza or a gathering space kind of outdoor programming and that really becomes the the kind of hub of the of the campus and so the way that the buildings are being positioned we have the the carriage house directly across from the barns that's creating a kind of axial relationship but what we're also trying to do here is leave enough room in between the buildings so that we can accommodate a future vision and we're going to give you a little bit of a teaser of that as part of this even though that would be a future phase of the of the project um and and then also just just wanted to explain that we imagine that the kind of difference in topography to be handled with a a tiered landscape and and potentially a future building which which we'd like to raise money for and and propose for the campus and that those moves would help sort of mitigate the the topographic condition and we've included an image here which kind of shows some some precedence of what that would be like where we include some paving as a way of stepping down but also really integrating the landscape so that we keep this kind of campus or park-like atmosphere that that already exists on the on the site so what we wanted to show you here was just a bit of a teaser of how we could imagine the campus then evolving and so what and to show how the movement of these pieces is very important in in creating some uh very critical relationships for how east end arts would then develop so this this is a view from main street showing a new building that we imagine which would be sort of an open pavilion uh i mean it's enclosed but it has a very open field that would help frame views back towards the water from main street and this would become a sort of a iconic um uh really we think we think of this as kind of a destination both for east end arts and also for the town of riverhead and but also solving some really critical programmatic issues in terms of providing more exhibition space and more support space ultimately for east end arts and and then also really becoming a way of dealing with the topographic change on the on the site so that you could allow the topography to spill down on both the sides of that building and then go down to what we see as a open end where you could program a kind of outdoor theater space uh that can be done in a very flexible configuration also what we're anticipating that we'd love to be able to do is to connect the benjamin house to the carriage house and to do that by adding an elevator and urs air in a smaller version of that same pavilion which would allow us to have access to the building more more

accessible access to the second floor of both of those buildings because they're both used for program now. There's no accessibility at the moment. Right. So that gives us a lot of flexibility on how the institution can evolve. Excuse me, could I just ask a question? What is the larger building in the background? What is that? The larger building in the background is the housing building that's presently under construction. That's the angle, that's the sign. Right. Yeah, and then the next page, this is sort of an initial thought of a future concept in terms of how the campus could evolve. By setting things up with that central plaza, we're able to envision the kind of event building that we showed two slides ago, and then the connector building. There's also an opportunity that if it would be in the cars to expand the Corwin House towards the south, we could do that. Right. And then also take advantage of the new sort of access road that's between the hotel and the site so that we could use that for service into the new building and into the center of the campus. And then of course what we'd really like to do is also have kind of a landscape buffer on both sides that creates a bit of separation between the hotel and the multifamily building and gives the campus its own sort of identity and also some privacy to those other buildings as well. Right. So that's a good point. But we like this configuration in that it provides a lot of flexibility. There's a lot of potential for the future. It leaves the whole southern end of the site completely open that we can envision the kind of theatrical space that in either its kind of amphitheater or a more flat configuration that can be used in a lot of different ways. And maybe potentially future bathrooms and so forth down at that end of the site. So that creates a lot of flexibility. Right. And at the same time leaves open the opportunity that we can really create this kind of destination for East End Arts and also for the town. I want to tell you what I love this. I'm going to tell you why. One, with the quality of the art that's going in there, these buildings match that quality. It's very difficult in the older buildings with low ceilings to really pre-create. A lot of the art that's there. I love the idea of the flexible space. The one thing that I'm hoping that we will, you guys per se, but the board will consider is given the proximity of the building to the east, putting an amphitheater there is going to be a nightmare because this apartment is right there. Is on the west side. And then on the east side of that space, southwest, that there'd be a stage at some point that can program to the east as well and then have the speakers facing west so the sound's not hitting the building. Yeah. And that would allow us to also use that stage to program to the west to the lower, the east. Right. Yeah. And then the lower, the lower town square. So, you know, it would, you know, work both ways. Which, um. Yeah. We've yet to have a sound engineer involved in all this. Right. Which I think is important. And Dawn and I have spoken about this and that person will be engaged because there's ways of doing this. But I got to say that I'm really impressed with the work. Thank you. It's really great. Oh, thank you.

flat condition would be a lot more flexible in terms of how you use the space. You probably have seen this where they have LED screens that are basically packed up, right? And then what happens is they're on a track so they can go and they come out, right? So they're able to flex either way. And the more flexibility, because all the technology is there that we use, the better it's going to be for anybody coming in to do programming or whatever. And we even thought the new building for a future phase, the back of that building, what's interesting is you have two fronts, essentially. You don't have a back for the building. You have a front which is people arriving from the parking, and then you also have a front from Main Street. So if there's an event that's specific to East St. D'Arts, for example, they can use that. People can be up on a high-rise building. Yeah. And then you have a higher platform for fundraising and that kind of thing and have a gathering below or actually obtain the view to the water by having an elevated position there. I guess my only, and this is not a criticism, I just don't, I guess you're going to have to figure out a way on that back building. If you have art in there, how are you going to shut off the light from affecting how you're lighting the, you know? That's, you know, I think that's an easy fix. Yeah. I think there'll be like a whole shading strategy that we'll have to do and make sure that the proper conditions for it. Well done. That's all I can say. This is like plugged in. Thank you. This protects our assets and what people want in our town by lifting this, so thank you. This is great and the future plans look awesome and we want to make sure that happens. So it's good stuff. Excellent. Thank you. Go ahead. I was going to say, so there's actually two. There's a beautiful, I guess the iconic point that you're going to look at at that building. There's a similar building that's going to go in between the two existing buildings, right? A smaller version of that. That's terrific. I was just trying to figure that out. That small building in between will have an elevator. Right. So it allows access to both the buildings in one space and not having to double up on elevators. I only have a question about the stair, all the steps, these beautiful steps here. These are the steps that'll be those other renderings that with all the garden work around it, right? Yeah. So that it'll be similar in character to this kind of building. Yeah. So it's not the same kind of image from page 14. Yes. They're not the amphitheater seating or anything like that. That's correct. But we also thought of it that it could be kind of informal classrooms for East End Arts that you can have like a smaller sort of like a summer classroom kind of outdoor situation there. So we kind of think of those outdoor spaces as trying to create as many different scales of rooms that we can on the campus and then you have all that flexibility. And the new arts building, the potential large arts building, is that going to be a big one? Yeah. So the new arts building, how much space does that leave then for the seating for the amphitheater? Because they're estimating what, 300 to 800 seats? That was the market study thought as what would be a good sweet spot. Does this building positioned this far back allow for that spacing? Yeah, it does. If we had a plan that overlaid some of the original amphitheater concepts, it's actually bigger than what the space was that was allotted for that. I also think the fact that the space is so large, it's not going to be enough space for the whole building. Yeah. So the fact that that space would be flexible would give everyone an opportunity to see what might come. So if there were bigger events or you wanted to have one very large event, you'd have that square footage to do that, but you could also coordinate off into more intimate and really give the flexibility before we put anything permanent in there and that temporary use to just really in real time understand. We have a market study which had a number, but times change, things change. It's a couple of years old now. So over the long haul, I think this is a really great way to get the buildings protected up front and then manage to have that space on the lower end as riverfront space really, and there would be no buildings there. If it floods, it's floodable and that works. And I was looking at this way, right? The way you've done the south side, it's an unpainted pallet. Yeah. So you have the flexibility to paint it all kinds of ways for years to come. Once you decide what it's going to be, the pallet's over and you start to lose that flexibility. And especially when we're dealing with, talking about art and performances and blah, blah, blah. I think you want that flexibility. Otherwise, if you close it off, you're done. Yeah. I love the art building because I just have this vision of the amphitheater is going from the renderings to be right behind it, down in the middle. Yeah. And I love the fact that it's down in the distance. And I would love to see the amphitheater follow the same open air look. Yeah. The way this is all open, we've seen different renderings, some not so great, but for the amphitheater. But something along these lines would match it. And this whole thing is a beautiful oasis in between all the large buildings all around the area. It's absolutely beautiful. Yeah. So a few things in terms of going over the site plan overall, and this is all, of course, preliminary, but we want to just keep in mind, I love the way the steps look and everything, but we've got a lot of work to do. And I think it's a good idea to have a plan for the entire area. Yeah. We've got to keep it ADA compliant, so we're going to have to find ways. Absolutely. Not just for wheelchairs, but also families, strollers, and other things that can make their way down. I would like to, I know this is just conceptual, but with the tree and everything in here, I do want to find in down, whether it be the town square, Eastern Arts, we do need a large tent location, whether it's even your own fundraiser. Yeah. We don't want you going to Mattatuck anymore. We want you to stay here. So in terms of layout, this could be the idea where if there is crafts fairs and things like that, where I think the town in the long run, I would be looking to purchase a structure that we could put up sometimes in the springtime throughout the summer and hold many different, whether it be crafts fairs, country fairs, or just events, farmers markets, whatever it may be. So we just want to be conscientious of the positioning to have a large structure, because we do need that protected space, so rain or shine events can happen downtown. And so just when you're thinking of that, whether it runs from east to west, because this building's, that might give some conceptual thinking ideas in advance of where in fact the stage is going to be. So it doesn't mean if you're having a concert, it doesn't mean the tent has to be up, but I think the town should own something that should be flexible and movable to dismantle things, whatever it may be, as you plan the summer. So just thinking with the structure. And I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. So the next step would be if this board is happy with this layout then the we would use the grant funding to do a small request for proposals from a construction engineer to design the move of those buildings and then we would be ready to really do that and so it's we're getting very close it's me how long I mean how how quickly can we do I have to talk to Amory about that she's the RFP nice if this P if this you know how many companies are out there that actually do this right which is very minimal so if we could identify those companies and just put it out for a month RFP I think it would be a short window and it's really for the engineering piece the construction drawings and then the bid would be to hire to build which would be probably a moving company that does the moving they have to you know follow the rules and then we would be ready to go and then we would behead the�� West Main Street, right? Okay, the height of the walls on the second floor, what are they? Yeah, I mean, those are probably at the low point, they're probably like 12 feet or so. But it's a good point that you bring up. There's a lot of flexibility on how that pavilion could be done. And having a full second floor, it might be interesting to have a totally open area where you could have a larger piece, for example, and have people be able to see it from multiple vantage points from up above and below. So, yeah, the configuration of the floors within the building, I think that's something that we really want to explore. Understanding the phasing of how this project has to happen, we didn't really get into the weeds too much with those sorts of details and operations, but I think what DXA was really great about and thoughtful in is looking at our general operations with our existing buildings and how we can configure them in a way to make that an improved experience. So as wonderful as it is having that large campus with all those buildings, sometimes it was a challenge operationally to be managing them at such a distance. So these kinds of things, and I especially love the accessibility building. I think that really opens up a lot, and it's a very smart way to have one elevator to access two buildings and bridge the educational process. And I think that's a really good way to apply that to our programs that way as well, and to revitalize the barn into something, because it's an attraction that everybody loves. Everybody just loves that barn. It's a cool little building, right? So to do something really wonderful with that. And then in the long-term planning, for it to be something that holds its own strength, like it has a charm to it for sure, but that that charm is not something that becomes negative, that it's become something that is strong, and charming, at the same time, as the revitalization is going. It brings that modernity into the existing historical buildings and landscape and things like that. But knowing it's like one phase at a time. But I do appreciate the question, because I think what we are both going for is we want something that is certainly iconic, that brings people down, that's not only just architecture, but also art. So I think that's certainly one of the considerations we'll be thinking through as we think through phase two, because we do want something that is noticeable, and that brings people in. I wouldn't say no to having a Julie Nouritu-esque giant piece that we'd be able to hang appropriately. Yeah, I mean, architecturally, I think just knowing some of the galleries out on the east end, and seeing quite a few in Manhattan and elsewhere, this is really great architectural work. And I mean, this is like the power, I'm not gonna, I shouldn't say this publicly, but, I'm not gonna say this publicly, but, but the Nourish Museum, I think, is this is much better, you know, architecturally, hands down, I think. To do this study helps us look for funding for those types of projects. So now we have the plan, we know what we're doing, then we can submit and people can see for themselves what that looks like. It's a whole angle, future gallery's amazing. That's what the church is in Sac Harbor. There's a place in Port Shepard that does the same thing. You're able to view the art from different angles, above and below. So it's definitely a huge attribute to our town and continues to draw artists. So good job. Some of the best stuff I've seen. The seven foot level area, is that now we added the flood zone with seven feet? It will be floodable, same as the playground. So that's the same elevation as the playground now. It's around four, I think. So it comes up a little bit and it's designed to be floodable. So we don't have to have it built all the way up and build a big wall on the back. That's the goal, you know, sort of step it up to me. And then we'll have the main street. And so that's how it'll be. Yeah, and it may not be clear from this, but the intent with that, the new building, is that the first floor of that building continues to be at the 13.6 level. And so it sort of hovers above the space so that it's still out of the floodplain. So if the flood is matching up now, how is it matching up now? Because we want to see East End Arts, the hotel project, Townsville, everything coinciding with each other, like it's one master plan, which it is. But so how are we relating? How is the transfer going, the walkability, here to the town square? So the back edge, so what will be a sidewalk along the sort of parking face there, that elevation completely matches up. And then, yeah, we stay down. What happens is there's these access roads, and they do kind of have their own elevations, so there's a bit of a retaining wall that comes out. So that's where we're going to need this kind of landscape buffer. But when we get up to the center portion of the campus, then that's where the access road between the hotel and our site, we can use that for service. I think the multifamily thing is kind of on its own. But yeah, so the main street side obviously totally syncs up, and then is better than it is now because it's going to be raised, and it has that kind of strange condition where you come down. The back will be completely in sync with the kind of wayfinding of the back. So just one more again, when you get into that final site plan, I just think the walkways and everything, so if you're designing them, they should be put into a configuration, again, for a large tending area, gathering space that we're not tearing anything up. And I'd like to see the walkways coming right in, right through the roadway, crosswalk, that it's all blending together. Yep. You know, so because that's what we want people to go down the town square, go to the restaurants, go to the market, and then make their way east, you know, and then I just want to make sure that there's nice pathways and everything is working together. Yeah. And we spoke about that a little bit too when we were first talking about this because right now, it's, people aren't sure. Like, can I go here? Do I not go here? What's happening? You know, it's like, is this private? Is it not? Am I invited? And this helps it to be something that if we ever needed to cordon off for a camp or something like that, we could. But this is really about inviting people to circulate, you know, through the downtown town square area. Part of this is a really good way to get this whole integration from the town, lower town square portion, blending into. Do you want to speak on that? Yeah, so you're working with LVFs, landscaping, drawings, and so the concern I have is how are we going to separate that access road or make that look a little better? Because that's just going to be, I don't know what that's going to be. It could be pavers. It could be anything right now. So we need to think how we're going to make that look decent. Is there going to be a berm? Is there going to be a separation from the access road? You have the landscape buffer? Yes. I almost wish it was pavers the same as, the same style of pavers that you're using in the town square or, you know, the walking area. So it all kind of blends together. It almost would have, you know, I mean it just would look more of a colonial setting as well by doing that and those houses fit that, you know, that type of style setting. We certainly need. Of course there's corn asphalt on it. It's just going to take away from the whole aesthetics of it. And we certainly need a little bit of an access for art deliveries and the like, you know, so we would like to take advantage of having that there for that. Sure. Which is it? Is it the Corwin building that's the low one? That's the, yes. So the Corwin building, are you using the whole building? Because there's a lot of parts to that on stilts. Yeah. Do you intend to salvage that whole building or, because this is the main house that was originally built, then there's an addition and then there's all pieces that they added. Yeah. Our intent was to move everything. Does that make sense though when it doesn't even look like it's usable, some of those spaces? The gallery space extends pretty much to the back of the building now. Yeah, we use pretty much every inch of any available space. If not for exhibition, then certainly we don't have any. Okay. And then we have some space for storage and other operations. Those porches are for my course. Right. Yeah, and the thing that will happen here is that when we raise the site up and we provide accessibility, which essentially will be level coming in, the porches then will become almost like terrace conditions where they're more flush to the ground. So we're going to have to work with how we address paving in those situations. And the same condition exists in the back of the Benjamin House right now. Well, so that eastern side has been turned into a East retaining wall now to Heatherwood project has I think that needs to be something needs to be done to that yeah so a lot of that will get hidden because the when we bring the front portion of the site up to 13.5 that that'll appear much lower but the back end yeah we're gonna need something like a serious landscape approach on I think both sides to make sure that that's mitigated because right now it's just a concrete wall like a bathroom probably needs to go and that's probably not a bad spot for it for events you know something unless we're gonna do temporary and then that's fine but so that's that big wall may be a good spot for that we refer that to and so the big wall that's between Heatherwood now and Eastern Arts is like a retaining wall there and it's when they fill up the top you're not gonna see it but in the back you're still gonna see that wall and so we're just I think we're talking about how we manage the look of that similar wall on the hotel side and that's where we're hiding dumpsters and containers right in that spot right there so we have to really there has to be like a visual separation there the future building is gonna have the mechanicals coordinated for the future of that in this I think what will most likely happen is to the west of that building there may be a kind of service area that we incorporate in and we're still working through some of the programmatic things that are gonna be happening there we have to accommodate a stair potentially another lift in that location but but yeah we need a zone for mechanical and that makes perfect sense because you're right along the access road so you can get service and always the concern for us is another phase ripping up a lot of stuff that we did already these early rounds definitely kind of like next to that schoolhouse there should be water electric future things that are going to be needed to maybe expand here to the center well there were only two buildings that are landmark designated here I think they're they're all historically protected except I don't think so the writing I thought it was the Corwin house and the that's that's fairly new that's like a the one is I know that isn't the John Deere guy on the back that's not the ones that are along the street obviously are within the historic district and also on the National Register so the entirety of East Main Street's on the National Register for the street wall though some are contributing assets somewhere now but these two buildings are obviously contributing assets to that designation so those you know but SHPO we've already sort of had very conversations we're not doing anything drastic we're maintaining the street wall so the barn was moved there it's really about location we're not you know eliminating anything we're just sort of shifting things around to get them out of the floodplain so in the end I don't think it's there's any issues there but even is all the buildings out there now you're gonna reuse yes I would just say to speak to your concern we're also not where you know I think we also acknowledge that there's also more work to do on the existing buildings that we have as we look to continue to mature the site for our own use as well and we were just talking about that earlier so it's not that you know I would say that the buildings move or the end of the process I think that's the beginning of the process and that will continue to you know look for ways to continue to modernize the campus including to your point addressing some of those structural elements because I can appreciate the you know the desire to make sure that with the new buildings going up that our campus is also modernized to reflect and just make a more cohesive site which I think is whatever some question then speaking as to the historical preservation though I guess which house is this that's going to connect to that smaller new building this one Benjamin House left are you gonna be allowed to cut into that wall and yeah allow access I love this building yeah we'll work with Shippo on that but typically as long as the the sort of connection does not overwhelm the historic structure and we're very selective about where we go in like we'll probably try to get in at an existing window opening for example there is one right there land loss takes the position to if you don't see it from the street right okay so yeah but we'll be very sensitive and we'll work with you know historic preservation Richard Wise did you meet Richard yet Richard I think little conversations I have with him he dug in his heels he wants that whole house you don't see from the street sounds like he wants to I just have one on page 16 I truly love this building I think I don't know how you can be able to walk on the street and not get drawn right into this campus but is there access handicapped access to the second floor because it's not shown in this render so off to the right there's a there's a bit of a sort of core that has an elevator and a stair that's part of that okay is it that's okay that wooded area that's kind of blurry okay great I think that what you're saying is that that's just conceptual at this point not to get drawn in by it right but the but the the goal of it is to make sure that we leave the spaces needed for these things down the road yeah and so that we don't look back and say oh we should have done X or we should have done Y and we didn't really we just moved them here and there and it's a mindful process about relocating them we are not in the hurricane zone so that glass doesn't need to be okay yeah that's good good thing appreciate the coffee savings I think that this campus is going to be beautiful and I think that it's something that downtown has always needed and something that the East End Arts is going to be so proud of when this is complete and it's going to bring new life to these buildings to the campus and we're going to be drawn to this from all over you guys should be so proud to be part of it right now now I'm going to ask you to address the public if you will because I have gotten the naysayers have said that we are kicking East End Arts out of the town square we're not being fair to them it's not kind and they've been there and we need them to keep them excited about this whole program and the whole future and so this is why we're doing that and so it's a temporary move you know over to the annex building and but there's great things to come right and so if you don't mind just speaking about it because that's what we're doing right now and so I'm going to ask you to address the public if you will because I have gotten the naysayers out of the town square we're not being fair to them it's not kind and so it's a temporary move you know over to the annex building and so it's a temporary move you know over to the annex building and so I'm going to ask you a lot of people say it was what are you doing East End Arts why are you kicking them out why are you doing you're no longer there because you know yeah you're having programming and saying like this is it before we move and like some people are seeing that something is ending here but I want them to see it as a new beginning so if you don't mind just excited you know what I could say is that I do appreciate the enthusiasm our supporters have for the organization you know I think it points to the fact that they do value the role of arts and Riverhead and in their lives and I think we're committed to keeping that but at the same time I think we're also showing certainly here today that we have a collaborative approach with the town that will really allow us to not only return to the space but also return in a stronger way and build towards an even more resilient arts organization both for East End Arts and also the role that arts plays in downtown Riverhead so I would hope that those people who continue to support us do so but also you know join us as we kind of prepare for that next phase and you've been a part of this process since day one right yes the day I became executive director yes whether I knew it or not that's just jumped right in with both feet yes you're not spending the rest of your life in the attics we're building something and we're very grateful to be there you know it's been it was you know if we could have asked to move and it was the perfect spot to move into and we're thriving there and that's all that you know anyone could ask for and we're most appreciative to be working so closely with Dawn and her team and with you and with DXA to be part of the process of all of this and be part of this exciting time of revitalization you know I mean I've got a long history here I went to Mercy High School you know like I know what it I know what this is place has been and I also see what it can be and I think it should be that so you know if it was the stars aligning that I'm the right person in the right seat at the right time but it couldn't be without the collaboration and that truly has been you know always been and it's about the preservation the preservation of the historical buildings the preservation of arts and culture here in downtown you know this is since I got here I've been calling it the Arts District of the East End because I believe it can be that and this is all moving closer to that direction and we're growing in the same direction which I think is pretty incredible I think it's phenomenal culture and the arts are alive and wherever head between the Suffolk Theatre between the East End arts between the jazz loved taking over the veil of it and the amphitheater that's coming I did I leave and obviously your campus it's a thriving area for the arts it really it's going to draw a tremendous amount of tourism all the arts to this town thank you working really hard in the meantime so that we're not just waiting for this to happen you know so construction begins tomorrow on the build-out at our temporary gallery space at 48 West Main and thank you to the to Councilman Kern, Councilman Rothwell, and mostly to Dawn and her team, because that was a lot to do. So we'll be opening that up with our Detour exhibition, our signature summer exhibition on June 13th. And it's right across the street from the 11 West Gallery Pecana Crossing that we've been operating. So we want to keep things going. We're not just sitting idly. We want to keep it moving and shaking. And that's why I'm on the Business Improvement District Board as well, because it all has to breed together. I just want the public to know that you haven't moved. You're under construction. That's right. Until we meet again. We have the Mosaic Art Festival coming. We have the Mosaic Festival on May 31st, which will be here on the Town Hall campus, which will be another great change for a little while until we get back. We'll get back into this new Main Street and Town Square area. These things are all good things. And I think that I personally, and maybe that's a good thing, I like change. I think change is good. I think it's necessary. And it's exciting to be a part of it all. Sounds like a song. Pull out the guitar, Bob. Are you going to play at the gallery opening? We have a show all about music, Bob. It's all about music. He's better than he's put himself onto. I've heard him play. He recorded with us. I mean, look, there's no question that this is a game changer. This is a great start to downtown because this is the best thing I've seen so far, coming into downtown, by far. Until we see that hotel, though. People are going to stay in the hotel. The artists are going to stay there because you're attracting. I mean. I have a little bit experience with art and the city and stuff like that. And, you know, what I've seen over the last few years is like night and day. What's going on in that gallery. It's serious. It's good stuff. And I keep seeing it here publicly. People need to come and see what's going on down there. For me to want to buy a piece of art is very, very rare. I'm a really bad at like, I'm very particular. I think also. I mean, it might have been you or one of your colleagues mentioned that one of the last events I attended to about being able to bring in and to display. And forgive me if I don't want to insult an artist. But more valuable work that's protected because the flood zone areas are dangerous in terms of like the storings of art and what could happen. And are you concerned about things or shows, you know, if there's a rainstorm coming or things moving, you have to move things out, knowing that you're protected allows, you know, you're protected. And are you concerned about things that are quite quite quite quite quite quite quite [transcription gap]

quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite you're displaying is long term is protected or they even if things like I quite familiar with the Parashar Museum who used to go in and this isn't a fire department they had like the vault area of all the things that they could put out and everything had to be you know so protect reserve when it came out for display and sometimes when it was put in protected and there's some quite quite a collection of people within the they have been area and so forth that had personal art that was held you know by the museum and protected you know and that was loan to them for so to speak to be on display in different times and so forth and you'd have the ability to do that no one would have concerns about you know the safety of the buildings in the grounds that make sense the flexibility it gives us from an exhibitional standpoint is fantastic because I do think that to your point you know the the concerns with bringing in you know I would say more reputable artists with that's the wrong term artists whose work is has a high value that requires insurance and certain you know requirements these facilities allow us to be able to do that more than we have in the past yeah that's got all art is valuable but it's just you know there are certain things that I know that do just we say come with insurance requirements and stipulations and climate-controlled setting and everything else and so the restoration of all these allows you to go that route that's right and this guy has a good eye for art if you go in the present house and you go to the rooms it's got a very good eye for art art in there is fantastic you may have to come on this against curator yeah you have to go you have to go check it out thank you for coming up and helping us to to marry that together the two sites we want to do that we wanted to all flow together and make a flow so I think that the separation the access road and we need to do something that we get to see through it wants to be more open part of it part of the whole thing it's just good to see professionals you know work because you guys I know work with you done some work with your company and it's a no-brainer well thank you all for coming in and we've got more slides you want to walk us through I think we still got the information in the back it's just that's just an appendix of some things that went into the design thinking I don't think cartoons yeah it's incredible commercial goods okay to start working on RFP yes thank you very much thank you excellent that's why I asked today thank you so much thank you very much very excited when he's gonna put our eyeglass collection in one day I always look forward to seeing what Wendy's going to wear I do you never like put together the things that you put together and they go perfectly all the projects have been lent you know what I mean the pathways that pathway papers very cool but then he put the belts together I'm gonna photograph my name Monday he has quite the collection so our next our next session matter on open work session is matters for surrounding give them a second second matter surrounding changes to the CRC or the commercial and residential campus zoning with councilman Kern councilman Rothwell and councilman Woski and we need somebody from planning well Matt is walking in mr. charters is walking in right now mr. charters I believe they've asked for you to is great is Greg here for this one can you yeah can I can you do it both of you come up come up and we'll get to it okay I can you do it both of you come up come up and we'll get to it both of you come up come on I think he's on IT but he's on his you're familiar with this Matt oversight yeah okay you're familiar with this I haven't seen the code so what's the proposed change or what do we so we should probably call Greg down he's been as well so this is the property just so you know this is the property that's directly across from the Dairy Land on 58 and um we need break here with a map so it's so that property if you're talking about specific property or the whole zone so that side of the road is CRC both sides of the road are CRC between East Main Street and 105 I don't I haven't seen a draft so I'm not sure what the changes so yes I don't just went to get Greg okay Greg I can say that is an office zone it's a more of a transitional zone office and residential there are a number of permitted uses the intent of that zone I can read it right to you from the from let me get the change how great is coming down maybe yes make sure he brings the change with him he's already on his way that's okay if yes I go back and get it this is locations for offices and professional offices which offer essential legal medical accounting real estate travel and other services in Riverhead to Riverhead residents and to provide additional housing alternatives convenient services and community services and arterial so less intense offices and things like that permitted uses our offices banks restaurants funeral homes single-family residents to family residents with TDR townhouses garden apartments radio intelligent vision broadcast studios when we see too many of those in town but it is a permitted use schools museums and art galleries meeting rooms for fraternal organizations places of worship sparks and playgrounds and indoor sports and recreation facilities there are all sources of accessory uses which are home occupations and drive-through windows for banks and pharmacies so I don't know what the town board is exactly looking to do maybe do you have to it the proposed code was no this code was not generated by the office no no I know no I'm not saying it was let me see I may have to run up and get it my question is that are we talking about an overall area are we talking about a sorry parcels sure that we're not spotless as well the overall area I believe it's made of the area then we want to talk about the old wolf and step yeah I think we we need to know the specifics of the change because obviously you heard from as well thought we're not really too sure what it is and then once we know what it is we can probably give you a better opinion whether it would be considered spots on it or not obviously we have to wait spots on you protect ourselves yeah we can't I haven't seen any legislation so I haven't seen anything that's been proposed with this yet so do we do we wait on the come back with it you guys here how many days to St. Patrick's Day Mother's Day don't forget Sunday what Sunday Mother's Day fourth on the fourth yeah and you and you just there was something else oh the Eastern Arts Mosaic you just brought that up that's right the end of May that's coming up yeah absolutely the cap march is on June 5th at 9pm at Pulaski Street School bailing us out I love it I love it and Mother's Day don't forget Mother's Day we have two moms right here that are absolutely fantastic and need to be honored so call your mom all that wonderful stuff so good to see you guys great that you guys are here very rare you get the two of us here at once good for the best of us yeah it's enjoyable but it is there so there's our back is having their open house on May 17th fundraiser from from 11 to 4pm that's also coming up Sunday May 17th big event on the east end of Long Island we'll keep chatting is on the same day on Sunday the 17th the rest of the week we'll keep chatting is on the same day on Sunday the 17th the rest of the week the red knights have their annual bike blessing so the motorcycle enthusiasts from all over Long Island come out and take off from North Sea and South Hampton all the way out to Montauk and the road is shut down it's the only time you're going to ride non-stop from South Hampton all the way to Montauk ever we have the four motorcycles tuned up ready to go the fourth before the fourth coming up in Grangeville Park which the chamber of commerce is doing so a lot of good stuff this gives us Greg just checked that I think that I kind of we have those wow obviously first glance for both of us just the I was about on the map I'm getting copies of what also let me see the draft of the I'm getting that it's not on there it's not there I'm getting copies made right now okay so that is sort of it's right here so retail stores are shops and trade shops on the map retail stores are shops and trade shops on the map retail stores are shops and trade shops on properties with frontage along either side of New York State Route 25 between Doctors Path and County Route 105 and their logical extension so that's a pretty narrow area as we know retail or special trade contractors are not or building and trade shops are not permitted uses in this zone now I kind of spoke to the purpose intent of the code already so it's supposed to be a more traditional less intense zone my concern is in this area not even from a trip generation perspective but just from an overall like traffic and movement it's somewhat of a bottleneck as everyone is familiar end of the day beginning of the day it sort of backs up in both directions so it would be a challenge to get in and out of there and then some of these uses are a little bit more impactful or not impactful to neighbors so there's not too much vacancy in this area I know there's a vacancy here and then this is a whole large piece that goes back that's partially zoned CRC but we just want to make sure that these uses are you know spoken to and in conformance with any recommendations of the comp plan so the comp plan update in 2024 did speak to some possible amendments to CRC these uses weren't included in those recommendations so it talks about adding additional residential opportunities such as increasing density and maybe a I think it's pretty much I mean the comp plan really spoke to more increasing residential density not necessarily adding different commercial uses within the zoning district so my concern who wants to live on that main road number one people do already yeah I know that bit but people have lived when you look at the age of those houses that's prior to any large traffic but you talk about traffic and then you talk about the ice cream place right across the street this is we're talking about the uses that we're talking about I'm not going to have anywhere near the kind of traffic the ice cream shop is generating and you know so and we all and the comp plan is not God the comp plan is made up of people like ourselves that were on the committee and need to make recommendations right so I and that's the way that's the perspective I'm coming where I'm coming from here in this zone because you've got 60 parking spaces across the street in a storage place right and you know I drive that every day and you might have you might have also met I don't know but that area is not you know where the ice cream is I mean that's I it's packed all the time and it's not a bad place to drive by there's three residential uses here these are residential obviously these are residential houses here can we put that up so everybody can see it absolutely has this gone through code revision no we are code revision any any board members that work on something is code revision I understand but I just you know we do have a committee and that's why not to not a little back and forth but that's why I made the distinction about not necessarily about trips but types of uses so if it's going to be a special trade contractor there might be more impacts that aren't just you know trip related but trucks outdoor storage noise odors light stuff like that it's a little bit more intense than say an office or a a dentist or even a medical office that's generally open when you're at work and closes when you get home we just have to be very very careful in terms of the spot zoning issue whether you know this is spot zoning or not we have to take a hard look at that you know because it has to be sort of marching along with recommendations of the comp plan and not to benefit any one person there's got to be yeah so we have some we have parcels on that side of the road right so it's you know that need to be addressed how many parcels are affected by this change so if it was this area it's essentially what you see on this map you probably got about four parcels that could be you know affected by it you've got the corner the parcel on the northeast corner of 58 main road doctors path there's another vacant lot here like Matt said this part this property here is actually part of a larger like 220 something acre and it's a lot of land 20-something acre parcel you've got the roughly half acre piece that was just so the board's aware so there was a site plan application that was made by that property owner to develop this trade contractor storage building on that site went to the zoning board of appeals seeking a use variance the board never rendered decision the applicant requested to withdraw the ZBA application that application was withdrawn with prejudice so he's not able to reapply for that use within two years so now this code amendment would effectively make that a permitted use within that zoning district so is that where this code amendments coming from or is it coming from somewhere else I'm just trying to understand we're trying to put something in here where people are going to use the property and that's the objective here you know we need we need property that's got use so we can get taxable buildings and if it's just going to be a we're going to sit there waiting for someone to build a house in any of those areas I could see them building a house you know 30-40 years ago which probably those houses that are over there are that old and today good luck with somebody wanting to build a house on a main road so I think what we need to do we need to be comprehensive in our thinking about what is going to occupy these spaces and you know when it was brought to me I said you know this makes perfect sense you know because I lack the experience of knowing whether people want to build houses on main roads I think the guy right across on 105 who just did all that renovation on that corner did a beautiful job I don't know who's going to want to live there because that house was probably 50 or 60 years old that they renovated yeah I think that's the older than that yeah I think that's sort of the that was the idea of me laying out the other permit uses it's not just a house