Riverhead advances zoning change to allow more pavement in commercial districts
Riverhead is moving to loosen pavement limits in four commercial districts even as its own planner says the change clashes with the new comprehensive plan.
Riverhead is advancing a zoning change that would let commercial lots cover more ground with pavement and rooftops, even as the town’s own senior planner said the proposal conflicts with the recommendations in the newly adopted comprehensive plan. The clash has turned a technical code rewrite into a test of whether Riverhead will treat its land-use blueprint as binding guidance or yield to development pressure.
The amendment would raise the maximum impervious surface coverage from 80% to 90% in the DC-3 and Business PB districts, from 60% to 75% in the CRC district, and from 40% to 50% in the PRC district. The town’s filing identifies the affected districts as DC-3, CRC, BUS PB and PRC, and the public hearing notice says the change would increase the maximum permissible impervious surface coverage in those zoning use districts.
That matters because impervious surfaces such as pavement, parking lots and rooftops keep rain from soaking into the ground. In practice, that can send more runoff into waterways, reduce groundwater recharge and make commercial corridors harder on drainage systems during heavy rain. Riverhead’s stormwater page says the town’s stormwater program is meant to protect water quality, reduce flooding risks and comply with state stormwater requirements.
The issue also goes to the authority of the town’s newest comprehensive plan. Riverhead adopted the updated plan on Sept. 4, 2024, after work that began in 2020 and continued after the town hired BFJ Planning in late 2022. Town plan materials describe it as a long-range blueprint for land use, development, capital spending, policy direction, climate resiliency, natural resource preservation and water quality. Riverhead’s previous comprehensive plan dates to 2003.
On April 9, a board majority instructed senior planner Greg Bergman to prepare the requested revisions for a public hearing, after the Business Advisory Committee pushed for the change. Former committee chair Martin Sendlewski spent months advocating for the amendment, and Bergman had already told the board that the town closed a loophole last year after applicants used pervious pavers to over-intensify sites.
At the hearing, Greater Calverton Civic Association president Toqui Terchun pressed the board to stick to the comprehensive plan’s recommendations, while former supervisor Laura Jens-Smith asked members to explain the rationale for a change that runs against the plan. For Suffolk County, where stormwater and groundwater protection remain recurring land-use fights, Riverhead’s decision will shape how aggressively the town allows future commercial expansion and how seriously it treats its own planning document.
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