By Anthony Bottan
The board has not set a date for its deliberations, because it is awaiting the results of a traffic study from the owners of the property, Abbey Rental. When the board is prepared to deliberate, it will notify Abbey Rental and the village.
The proposed car wash, which would replace Abbey Tool Rental on the northeast corner of the intersection of Merrick Road and Ocean Avenue, just over the Lynbrook border, has raised serious opposition from residents, who claim that the location is already a traffic nightmare. Chuck Aybar, a Lynbrook resident for more than 50 years, testified last week against the car wash, saying that it would increase traffic down Madison Street, where he lives and where many kids play in the streets.
"When you have kids running around on bikes, skateboards and scooters in the street, it's bound to be a disaster," Aybar said.
The property owners at Abbey Rental were on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
According to a May 5 letter sent by Village Trustee Richard Clifford to residents in the vicinity, the car wash would be a 60-foot-long, full-service operation. Motorists would access it by way of Ocean Avenue, heading west on Merrick Road. Vehicles would exit north on Ocean Avenue.
In addressing the zoning board on June 27, Mayor Brian Curran cited a letter written by Lynbrook Police Chief Joseph Neve in which Neve described the site as an "overburdened and dangerous intersection." Since May of 2004, Curran said, Lynbrook police have written 280 traffic tickets in the area, and recorded 109 accidents.
"[A car wash] will only serve to make an already dangerous situation even worse," Curran said.
He added that if the car wash handled a maximum of 60 vehicles per hour, as predicted by Alan M. Stein, attorney for the current property owner, Frank Martocci, an increase in primary and side-street "cut through" traffic along Lynbrook's Madison, Monroe, Charles and Hamilton streets would be significant.
Danny Teigman contributed to this story. Comments about it? MMalloy@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 246.
