Riverhead Town Board votes to scrap contract with company that planned project on EPCAL property
Residents who attended the special meeting broke out into applause following the vote to declare the sale agreement null and void. Many have long been against the plan.
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The Riverhead Town Board voted unanimously Tuesday to cancel the contract between the Community Development Agency and Calverton Aviation & Technology.
This comes just a day after the Riverhead Town IDA said that Calverton Aviation & Technology did not have the money to complete their planned project on the EPCAL (Enterprise Park at Calverton property). The company had wanted to put warehouses and a rail hub on the land, as well as use existing runways at the old Grumman site for planes.
Residents who attended the special meeting broke out into applause following the vote to declare the sale agreement null and void. Many have long been against the plan.
“I could not be happier, I am so pleased that they turned this deal down,” says Kathy McGraw, of Northville. “But I am upset that they’re patting themselves on the back because they are the reason the town has gone through this for seven years.”
A spokesperson for Calverton Aviation & Technology said in a statement, ““It is literally tragic that the Town of Riverhead has diverted the enormous economic future of Calverton and sent it to the courthouse for what will likely be years to come – and whose eventual outcome for the Town will be problematic. The facts, the law, and the record will demonstrate that CAT Triple Five has the legal right to develop this property and to create the promised well-paying jobs detailed in our various applications. By choosing this path with unseemly haste, the Town of Riverhead has dismissed the opportunity to fast track the creation of a 21st Century economy. Instead, they have chosen a path that will further delay the enormous potential of EPCAL for what might be a generation.”
The spokesperson added that company is “clearly looking at legal options and will be aggressive in pursuing them.”
