With an eye toward reimagining a largely blighted strip of Main Street in Patchogue, the Village Board has commissioned a planning study and halted development approvals along the downtown’s western end.
The board voted unanimously Monday night to extend by another six months an already in-place six-month development moratorium on the southern side of West Main Street. The affected area runs from Railroad to River avenues.
“What should we do with those properties?” asked Mayor Paul Pontieri.
To that end, he added, “Do we need to do a change of zone? And how do we end Main Street? It needs a landing place, not just keep expanding Main Street.”
The study is being conduced by economist Todd Poole of 4ward Planning Inc., who on Thursday publicly released a comprehensive study on behalf of the Long Island Regional Planning Council that examined 17 years of economic development in the village.
Using Poole and his firm means significant savings on the study, since he has so much data already at hand.
“We also need some strong ideas,” Pontieri said at the meeting.
The mayor said the study, which will cost about $29,000, will primarily examine the one side of Main Street, though that may change a bit as the study moves forward.
“And the public will have an opportunity to provide some input,” Pontieri said.
The area of the study does not include a proposed self storage facility at 500 West Main Street, even farther west in the village near Atlantic Avenue.
A public hearing on that proposal will happen at the Dec. 18 Planning Board meeting.
Pontieri said the focus on that particular application will be on what the facility “will look like and feel like … because that really is the westerly entrance to the village. So you want the building to have a substantial look to it, something that tells people you’re in Patchogue.”
[Click here for a rendering of the proposed self-storage facility that’s posted to the Patchogue Village Citizens for Open Village Government’s Facebook page.]
Photo: Looking east on West Main Street near the new Blue Point Brewery to the north. The southern side of the street appears on the right in the photo. (Credit: Michael White)
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