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4/29 & 5/2/12 changes are highlighted like this sentence.
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KEY FACTS
SCTM: 0200-716-02-1& 2
Acres: 1.6
School District: Center Moriches
Application:
Change to J Business 5, 2 special permits requiring criteria waivers, variances
Current zoning: L-1
Current use: Vacant, wooded
Proposed use: 7-Eleven with gas pumps
Brookhaven log #: 2011-13-CZ
Hearing date: Decision made.
Click on links in text below to view documents.
To see a list of all the documents on this project, or to download any for viewing, printing or saving (with Acrobat 7 or later), click here.
7-Eleven wants to build a 2,940 sq. ft. convenience store with 8 gas pumps under a 25' high canopy in front of the store at the SE corner of the Sunrise Highway South Service Road and Wading River Road--just 1000 feet from the Hess gas station and convenience store on the other side of the Sunrise Highway. Of the 66,100 sq. ft. of trees on the site, 10,770 sq. ft. are to remain.
To make the project fit on the site and be legal, applicant will need favorable rulings from the Town Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and later the Planning Board. It will need (1) a change of zone from L Industrial 1 to J Business 5, (2) a special permit for an accessory convenience store, (3) a special permit for a motor vehicle fueling station, (4) various special permit criteria waivers, (5) site plan approval and (6) the following variances:
A conceptual plan showing the layout and a landscape plan are available. Renderings of the east and south sides of the conceptual building are difficult to assess; while some effort when into the design, there is still a strong resemblance to other 7-Eleven stores. Look at these filings to get some idea of what 7-Eleven wants.
The Town's Traffic Safety Division and engineers have expressed concerns about traffic impact in a 8/26/11 memo and a 1/16/12 memo. Applicant filed a Traffic Impact Study dated 10/29/11. It concluded that the project "would not have a significant impact on the traffic operations of the adjacent roadway network." Issues with the TIS were raised by the Town in a 2/23/12 memo that has been forwarded to applicant. This resulted in a new traffic impact study dated 3/20/12, which was itself supplemented on 4/6/12. These efforts resulted in 4/18/12 comments from the Town and 4/19/12 response from applicant.
The Moriches Bay Civic Association has raised a number of serious concerns in its 2/13/12 letter.
Town Board Hearing, 4/24/12
The applicant presented few facts in support of its application at the hearing. Near-by residents who spoke were all against a change of zone. Moriches Bay Civic had opposed the application. A representative of Manor Park Civic spoke against the application. And an EMPOA officer spoke. The civics which expressed an opinion were all against changing to the zone as requested.
Even before all speakers had an opportunity to speak, Councilman Panico came out strongly in favor of the application, saying that he had extracted conditions from the applicant that would ensure that it was a good looking facility. He mentioned things like special trashcans and no banners on a certain part of the building.
After the public had had its chance to speak, the applicant unveiled a graphic showing how the building, gas tanks and canopy would look. It looked like a 7-Eleven with the gas canopy dominating the image. As a gateway to the area, it would be unimpressive if not negative, according to some observers.
The Board passed a SEQRA Negative Declaration and a resolution changing the zone to J5 and giving 7-Eleven what it wanted. Councilwoman Kepert spoke against having 7-Eleven gas stations anywhere in Town and voted against the change of zone; Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld joined her in voting against the application.
Here is a rendering offered by the applicant to show what we have to look forward to:
