Still no gas for USA Gas

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After over a year and a half, there is still no resolution to the impasse over permits for the USA Gas station at the corner of Hempstead and Morris avenues in Malverne — whose owners want to sell gasoline.

The station, which has been in Malverne Park for over 80 years, sold gas until February 2013, when its gas tanks, which expired in 2011, were sealed off by the Nassau County fire marshal. Malverne Park is an unincorporated area outside the village of Malverne.

Since then, the station’s owner, Snuggle Ventures, has been attempting without success to obtain two permits that are necessary in order to get the business up and running again. Last week, however, the Town of Hempstead voted for the second time to adjourn two important decisions about the property.

The first is the company’s application to rezone the property from residential to a GSS — gas service station — business district. The town voted last week, as it had last year, to postpone a decision about the rezoning. No date was scheduled for a reconsideration of the matter, and, as is the norm at town board meetings, no explanation was given for the adjournment.

The second outstanding decision concerns the installation of four gas tanks, which would have a total capacity of 22,000 gallons and would replace the business’s expired 33-year-old tanks. This decision, however, cannot be made until the rezoning issue has been resolved, according to town law.

“Their current tanks were installed in 1981,” said Vincent McManus, division supervisor at the Nassau County fire marshal’s office. “They have a 31-year life, literally 30 years with a one-year grace period. There’s a pending order to remove the tanks, but in the short term they were ordered to evacuate the tanks, and right now they’re empty.”

Another hurdle for Snuggle Ventures is a required resubmission of its plans for new tanks to the fire marshal. McManus said that all such plans, once approved, expire within a year of their submission. The last time Snuggle Ventures submitted plans to install new tanks was in 2012.

“The old tanks ultimately have to come out — we can’t let that situation exist forever,” McManus said. “If this is something that’s going to stretch out beyond this year, they’re going to have to take the old tanks out. They either have to remove them or there is an accepted method for abandoning them in place.” Most landlords, McManus added, would choose not to abandon them in the interest of making the property appealing for resale.

The gas station first opened in 1925, predating local zoning codes, and its repair shop remains open.

Tom McKevitt, a lawyer for Snuggle Ventures, could not be reached for comment. No contact information could be found for the company, which is headquartered in Brooklyn, according to several websites.

In the past, Malverne trustees have complained that the site, at the convergence of Morris, Hempstead and Ocean avenues, is problematic, presents entrance and exit problems and is not appropriate for commercial use. They have also noted high traffic volume, vehicles moving at high speeds and sight-line problems for north- and southbound traffic.

Many residents, however, are happy with the service station. “I like Charlie, who works in the repair shop, and I’m all for the gas station getting their permits,” said Linda Baldacchino, who lives two houses away. “If they could redo it, it would be nicer.”

Baldacchino said that the station’s location presents safety problems, but she does not believe that is the station’s fault. “That corner in general is a problem,” she said. “I think it’s because there’s a double light. That area probably needs some kind of a sign, too. That whole intersection needs to be made safer.”

In the meantime, the station, with its handwritten signs, orange cones, broken concrete and apparent lack of maintenance, is beginning to look like an eyesore.

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