First Baptist Church of Riverhead seeks town board support to revive decades-old housing project

The First Baptist Church of Riverhead is hoping the town will endorse a decades-old proposal to bring housing and a community center to its 12½-acre property on Northville Turnpike.

Leaders from the church unveiled the latest plans at a town meeting on June 15, where it was met with support from the five-member board, which needs to approve a zoning change for the project. 

The plan calls for 80 affordable one- and two-bedroom rental apartments and five affordable three-bedroom condos that would be offered through a lottery. Twenty units would be for people with disabilities.

It also includes a 10,000-square-foot community center that church leaders said could be used for a variety of programs. 

The town board has yet to set a hearing date on the proposal.

“It’s my belief that churches do more than just marry people, baptize people, preach the gospel,” the Rev. Charles A. Coverdale, who has led the congregation for over 40 years, said at the meeting. “They help the people in the community.”

The proposal is more than a decade old. In 2013, it failed to get enough votes from the board after some members worried about the impact on schools and the church's tax-exempt status.

Three years later, the town established a Community Benefit overlay zoning district to allow high density housing on sites that would provide public services. The church has since gained approval from the state attorney general for the real estate transfer, as required by state law.

The church and the Family Community Life Center, a nonprofit it formed, partnered with Jericho-based Georgica Green Ventures to develop the project.

Georgica Green Ventures has a mix of affordable and market-rate projects in Riverhead, including the Riverview Lofts downtown, a pending project at the corner of West Main Street and Sweezy Avenue, and plans to redevelop the area surrounding the Riverhead LIRR station.

Georgica Green Ventures president David Gallo said focusing on one- and two-bedroom units will limit the impact on schools. While they plan to seek tax breaks from the town’s Industrial Development Agency, Gallo said they would pay taxes.

Shirley Coverdale, the pastor's wife and president of the Family Community Life Center, said the need for housing is dire.

“We have a large underserved population that is in need of housing,” she said. Suffolk County’s median income in 2021 was $113,683, compared with $63,977 in Riverhead, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median home price in Riverhead is $572,000, according to Suffolk Vision Inc.

One focus of the community center would be workforce development, primarily in the growing health care industry. “It is a sector that pays a living wage, a family-sustaining wage,” Shirley Coverdale said.

She anticipated the development could cost upward of $30 million and said the church is seeking grant funding to offset costs.

Church officials said the center could benefit The Butterfly Effect Project, which runs programs out of the church and has grown from eight members in 2014 to over 500. “We’re constantly outgrowing [our space],” said Tijuana Fulford, executive director of the nonprofit whose mission is to empower young people.

Some officials fear the housing lottery would favor outsiders over locals. 

“We can’t particularly control who applies ... but we have managed to flood the local community with applications and make sure the marketing is targeted,” Gallo said.

Others want more homeownership opportunities included — something Gallo said they’re open to considering. 

“That’s important to us as a town, not just to have rentals but for young people to be able to buy something and take pride in ownership,” said councilman Tim Hubbard. “I would love to see it come to fruition.”