Friday, January 24, 2025
An application to construct a 7-Eleven with a gas station in Baldwin was approved in May by the Hempstead Town Board, to replace what was once a Bank of America at 792 Atlantic Ave., which closed five years ago.
Juliette Dixon lives adjacent to the site, at the Barclays Condominium. When she learned about the application late last year, which was filed in November 2021, she expressed concerns at a hearing that if the project got the green light from the board, it would negatively affect her and her neighbors’ health and quality of life.
Late this summer, Dixon and her neighbors wrote a letter and drew up a petition that has garnered more than 80 signatures from those who disapprove of the proposed gas station, which they sent to Town Supervisor Donald Clavin and Councilwoman Laura Ryder, Dixon said. They are asking the board to reconsider.
“There are grave concerns, and we respectfully urge you to reconsider granting the variances for this gas station and kindly request a private meeting at your earliest convenience,” the petition stated. “Please understand that our community values its peaceful, safe and attractive living environments, and we believe this development would not align with those values.”
In November 2021, the property’s owner, Keith Pellegrino, of Baldwin 792 LLC, a development company sought a change in zoning to include it in the town’s Gasoline Service Station District, as well as several variances that included a waiver of the Town’s prohibition of the construction of a gas station within 1,000 feet of another station.
Community members expressed their concerns about the project at a hearing, prompting Pellegrino to make adjustments from the board to his application. They included planting 14-foot-tall arborvitae trees on the residents’ side of the fence that separates them from the lot, building an 8-foot-tall sound-attenuation wall, installing security cameras and shielded lighting, limiting refuse pickup hours, and installing new Baldwin Harbor signage.
“There’s no need for another gas station in Baldwin,” Dixon said. “There are three right down the block, and two others between Rand Boulevard and Milburn Avenue.”
A Shell station, at 900 Atlantic Ave., is less than a mile from the site.
Dixon, and others who are opposed to the development, attended the May 7 resolution hearing at which the application was granted.
They said they did not get the chance to speak and were “ushered out of the auditorium” in Hempstead’s Town Hall.
Dixon contacted State Sen. Kevin Thomas’s office to emphasize her concerns further. A member of Thomas’s staff explained that she had to organize a “grass-roots effort” by putting together a petition and a letter.
“We’re up to over 80 signers of the petition,” she said. “We sent the letter to them, and haven’t heard back yet.”
“Following the December hearing regarding this property, the Town urged the developer to work with the neighbors and find ways to alleviate their concerns regarding the proposed application,” Brian Devine, the Town’s director of communications, wrote to the Herald in an email. “As a result, the final application for Baldwin 792 includes numerous accommodations and mitigation measures to respond to the feedback presented by neighbors at that hearing.
“As the project progresses,” Devine added, “the developer has committed to keeping an open line of communications with the neighboring residents, and the Town will continue to monitor the project as it moves forward.”
Dixon said that Baldwin Civic Association President Kimberly Malone and members of the association met with Ryder after the board approved the project to discuss it. In a message to the Herald, Malone confirmed the meeting.
“We talked about how we had major concerns, particularly about the traffic in the area,” Karen Montalbano, the BCA’s government relations representative, said. “It’s a very trafficked area because of the school and the limited roadways that go south.
“The contention by the owner at the hearing at the Town of Hempstead was that that was the only thing they could figure out what to do with it,” Montalbano added.
Montalbano pointed out that there is a 7-Eleven in business diagonally across the street from the proposed gas station, raising questions about the future of that property. As of press time, the Herald could not confirm whether Pellegrino is the owner.
“I feel blindsided and unheard,” Dixon said when asked about the support she has received from the petition. “We are longtime residents here. We pay our taxes and do what we need to do. We’re a working community, and work hard to maintain our quality of life. To know that our elected officials would just go ahead and put something so toxic in our backyards is heart-wrenching.”
