The community planning forum will run from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. inside the main room of the senior center.
The study will cover the 10-mile-long stretch of Route 25A between Crystal Brook Hollow Road in Mount Sinai and the Riverhead Town border near Wading River Manor Road in Wading River. As part of the study, members of the community will be engaged during public planning forums about the issues that concern them related to building, traffic flow and safety.
"They are going to roll out from one community to the next," said 2nd District Councilwoman Jane Bonner, who secured $180,000 in funding for the study, to be commenced by Buckhurst Fish and Jacquemart, a planning firm with offices in Manhattan and New Jersey. Four other community planning forums will follow the one in Mount Sinai, with the next one to be held in February in Miller Place. Forums will be held in Rocky Point in mid-March and in Shoreham-Wading River in April. The dates and times will be posted on the town's Web site and postcards will be mailed to residents of each hamlet.
Ms. Bonner said the community planning forums will include stakeholders from different community groups, such as schools, fire departments and small-business owners. From there, participants will be able to go back to their perspective groups for feedback.
"It's very exciting in that this brings me back to my civic roots," Ms. Bonner said. "It's all driven by the stakeholders, not what typically happens in the Town of Brookhaven."
Ms. Bonner said the study will include examination of pending projects to study development pressure, and performance of a vacant-land analysis to determine remaining development potential in the area. The study will also include an evaluation of the demands that are placed on the roadway due to seasonal agritourism and will coordinate efforts with the Shoreham/National Grid Steering Committee to evaluate the development potential of the 800-acre KeySpan property.
News that the first steps of the corridor study have been taken was welcomed by Sid Bail, first vice president of the Wading River Civic Association. Mr. Bail, who is a member of the working group for Shoreham-Wading River, said there are realistic expectations over what the study can achieve in both the long and the short term, but that there are some concerns about getting people excited about it. However, Mr. Bail said the end results will make it worthwhile and he is optimistic.
"It will be more comprehensive than the hamlet studies," he said. "Some of these hamlet studies were done many years ago."
peggy@northshoresun.com