Rethinking rezoning for Hess

Neighbors of the Hess gas station on Sunrise Highway will remain in limbo for another month, after the Rockville Centre Board of Trustees again postponed a decision that would allow the rezoning of a sliver of Hess’s property.

Hess representatives first came before the village board in September to request a change in zoning for the parcel, at 580 Sunrise Highway, which is currently classified as residential, despite its location on property otherwise zoned for commercial use. They did not specify any changes they would make to the property if it were rezoned. Neighboring residents worry that a decision permitting the change would allow Hess to develop more, thus hurting property values of adjacent homes.

“The continued granting of spot zoning variances to benefit business interests at the expense of shrinking residential districts needs to end now,” resident Joe Thrapp wrote in a letter to the Herald. “The spot zoning does not benefit this village by one additional tax dollar.”

Residents came to the September meaning to lodge complaints about the station, and mentioned frustrations about bright lights, noisy late-night deliveries and customers who make dangerous left turns into the southbound lane of Oceanside Road as they exit.

According to Village Administrator Keith Spadaro, the village board has looked into residents’ complaints. Should the board allow for rezoning, he said, it would add restrictions: no deliveries between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. (except fuel deliveries); no standing for trucks at any time; and no left turns for those exiting onto Oceanside Road (the station owners would be required to add curb cuts to guide traffic to the right). Landscaping or another buffer would also have to be installed between the station and the neighboring homes.

“The residents came, and they were very upset,” Spadaro said. “We sat down, we listened to them.”

Daniel Casella, superintendant of the village’s building department, also stressed that should the village board grant permission for rezoning, Hess would still need to seek approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

“If the village board rezones that parcel, that doesn’t say, OK, go build a gas station,” said Casella. “There’s still another public hearing by the Board of Appeals. And that’s what it’s all about: give and take.”

But for some residents, this may not be enough. If the rezoning is allowed and Hess then sells the property — a distinct possibility, according to the Wall Street Journal, which has noted an interest on the part of BJ’s Wholesale Club in purchasing the Hess Corporation — the new property owner would be free to petition the zoning board for a variance allowing them to work around restrictions put in place by the village board.

“I think if you want to protect the neighbors, you don’t change Residential A property to Business A property,” said Mary Beth Kearns, who chaired the village planning board for 16 years under Mayors Eugene Murray and Mary Bossart. “Rezoning is not like a variance. It’s completely changing the nature of the property.

“Hess hasn’t given any evidence that it really needs this property changed,” Kearns added. “After all, it’s getting full use of the property.”

Casella, however, stressed that any restrictions put in place by the village board would be seriously considered by the zoning board in case of an appeal, and would be far more permanent than Kearns implied. “When [the village board] has a decision, it rides with the land,” he said. “Not the tenant. Not the owner. The land.”

A. Thomas Levin, the village attorney, agreed, noting that the zoning board has the power to grant variances, but not to override village law. “The Board of Appeals has among its powers the authority to give people variances of the zoning laws,” said Levin. “Village code requires that everything [the village board does] on the property get an approval from the zoning board anyway.”

The property’s dual zones have only recently come under public scrutiny, but according to Ed Oppenheimer, the village board’s liaison to the zoning board, the property has been this way for years, and has hosted a gas station for years.

“It’s a kind of situation where that neighborhood, as long as I can remember, has been there, it’s been maintained well, and it is what it is,” said Oppenheimer, acknowledging the difficulty of the location for residents. “But how many times a week do I drive back and forth [on Oceanside Road] to get to the hospital?”

As for the divide between business and residential land, Casella seemed to opt for balance. “There has to be a symbiosis between both,” he said. “Everyone has a right to live in their own realm.”