Stop & Shop overhaul plans clear another hurdle

The Town of Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals issued a decision at the end of September granting the Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC, permission to move forward with a planned renovation of its store in the Merrick Mall, but the BZA also imposed a series of conditions — for which the Merrick Park Homeowners Association had pressed — on Stop & Shop’s building plans.

Plans for an overhaul of the supermarket have been long delayed, frequently changed and the subject of much debate in Merrick for years. MPHOA, which comprises 105 dues-paying families from the Merrick Woods neighborhood near the store, began seeking an agreement with Stop & Shop on its renovation plans in 2005, according to MPHOA President Barry Fox. The association eventually obtained a number of written assurances from Stop & Shop, but construction work planned for 2009 never went ahead after the recession hit in 2008.

Now the BZA has granted Stop & Shop the zoning variances the company needs for its plans to expand the store’s footprint by roughly 15,000 feet.

In its written decision on Sept. 25, the BZA ordered that Stop & Shop move its loading area from the building’s east side to the west side, farther away from the homes of Merrick Woods; move its air-conditioning unit as far southwest on the building’s roof as possible, thereby positioning it father away from Merrick Woods; move its dumpsters from the building’s south side, a back alley, to an enclosure on its north side, where there is a parking lot; install new landscaping on the property’s south and east sides and new fencing on the east side; install security cameras outside and inside the store; and address drainage issues. The BZA also decreed that Stop & Shop cannot install any cell towers or antennae on its building, erect any signs on its roof, keep its store open between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., or use Smith Street for trucking or loading. Lastly, the BZA instructed Stop & Shop to provide MPHOA’s officers and town and county officials with contact information for a company representative to whom they could voice their concerns about any “quality-of-life and health-and-welfare issues” associated with the property.