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Mostly Cloudy Scaled-down QuickChek in the works
QuickChek, the New Jersey-based gas station and convenience store chain, is still committed to opening a location in Seaford, according to the developer’s attorney.
The project would be scaled down, which attorney Bill Bonesso said is “directly in response to the residents’ concerns.”
Late last year, QuickChek proposed building a 6,500-square-foot convenience store along with eight gas pumps at a site on the south side of Merrick Road, near the Massapequa border. It would replace an existing gas station and car storage lot, and also use undeveloped area in a residential zone.
Many residents opposed the project, saying it was too big and would make a bad traffic situation worse. Nearby homeowners objected to the use of residentially zoned property.
Bonesso said that QuickChek officials are still interested in building on the site, and have gone back to the drawing board. He said they are expected to release a plan that would use only existing commercial property.
A revised plan would have to go before the Town of Hempstead for approval. Bonesso said that once QuickChek completes it, he would review it before submitting it to the town, where it would be examined by the building and engineering departments. He said he expected to present the revised proposal to the town within a few weeks.
“We’ll see what it looks like and what it entails,” said Christine Pyryt, a member of the Seaford Harbor Civic Association, who lives around the corner from the site. Pyryt added that she still has concerns, even without the use of the residential property, including seating in the convenience store, its around-the-clock operation, the impact on the adjoining wetlands and traffic. “That is a high-accident area,” she said.
George Kern, who lives next to the site, said he is opposed to a QuickChek regardless of how big or small the proposals is. He noted that in the first set of plans, the dumpsters and loading zone would have abutted his property.
Having lived there for close to 40 years, Kern said that there have been a lot of changes on the surrounding commercial properties, and the addition of QuickChek would be one of the most unwelcome ones. “The value of my house is dropping because of changes that are basically beyond my control,” he said.
When the town hosts a public hearing on the project, Kern said, he will be there to voice his opposition to it.
There is contamination on the site, created by underground gas tanks, and some in the community want to see the site cleaned up and redeveloped, noted Phil Franco, president of the Seaford Harbor Civic Association. Franco said that he has suggested to QuickChek officials that they sit down with people who live near the site.
“They really have to get a dialogue going with the people who live there,” he said. “That’s the key to this, I think.”
He said that a scaled-down proposal is a step in the right direction, but he would still want to see all the details of the plans, such as how big signs would be.
QuickChek, a company with roots dating back to 1888, operates 140 stores in New York and New Jersey, but has only one other location on Long Island, on Route 347 in Lake Grove.
Bonesso said that before the plan makes its ways to the Hempstead town board, he expects QuickChek to host another public meeting, as it did in January, at the Seaford firehouse. “I would expect that we would certainly want to update the community,” he said.
