Town Contracts Renaissance Downtowns for Riverside Revitalization
Southampton Town’s plan to revitalize Riverside—one of the town’s westernmost hamlets, bordering Riverhead—took a leap forward last week when the town board picked a master developer.
Renaissance Downtowns was chosen out of three proposals considered for three weeks. “The selection of a master developer represents one of the primary and crucial goals set by the Riverside Economic Development Committee—which the group has diligently worked toward laying the groundwork for—and now represents an exciting mark of progress in making the revitalization vision, a reality,” Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst says.
According to Kyle Collins, Southampton’s planning and development administrator, the goal of the Riverside Revitalization Action Plan is to provide strategies and development proposals. Areas will be targeted for development or re-development with input from the community, Collins says, and zoning and regulatory changes and strategies for attracting investment in Riverside will be identified.
“This starts to bring this community’s long awaited vision for the area to fruition,” Councilwoman Christine Scalera says. “The work of so many civic members, leaders and committees over the many years has set the stage for this and they should all be acknowledged for their dedication and work.”
The town board will hold a work session Thursday when Renaissance Downtowns will present its proposal for the Riverside Revitalization Action Plan.
Riverside is home to county courts and the county jail—though often the location of these facilities is mistaken for Riverhead because the areas share a ZIP code. Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman is also working on a Riverside revival.