By JOSEPH KELLARD
King Kullen Grocery Inc. is slated to build a 19,000-square-foot
Wild By Nature, a supermarket specializing in organic foods, at the
northeast corner of the site on Long Beach Road where the former
Foodtown once stood, abutting Commerce Bank and Schoolhouse
Green. In addition, a 13,000-square-foot Walgreens or CVS
pharmacy is proposed to replace the existing brick building, once
the home of the Oceanside movie theater, in the southwestern
section of the site.
While the Hammers find the site's development agreeable ‹
since the Foodtown building was vacant for six years before
arsonists burned it down last November and rubble remained there
for many months ‹ they question the proposed layout of the
shopping center. In particular, they disapprove of the proximity of
the pharmacy's 24-hour drive-through to their property line, with
customers' cars pointed directly at their house and, at night, their
headlights beaming through their dining room windows.
"The problem is with the drive-through being 41 feet from my
property line," Nancy Hammer told the Town of Hempstead Zoning
Board of Appeals, which heard King Kullen's applications for
variances on the drive-through, a dumpster's location and off-street
parking on Oct. 25.
Michael Sahn, an attorney for King Kullen, said the developers
would do what they can to accommodate the Hammers, including
installing the tallest fence allowable along their property line to
block the sight of cars.
Both Sahn and zoning board Chairman Gerald Wright, in his
closing statement, said that drive-through pharmacies attract
relatively minimal traffic. "Even during peak hours, they¹re not
busy," Wright said, noting that he often uses such drive-throughs.
The Hammers also voiced concern that the traffic plan calls
for King Kullen and the pharmacy delivery trucks to enter and exit a
driveway next to their home. And in addition to the large tractor-
trailers they expect, the couple suspect that many motorists will be
tempted to use this driveway, too.
Sahn pointed out that the plans also call for the traffic light at
Harrison Avenue to be realigned so that a southbound turn lane can
be added at that intersection on Long Beach Road to allow motorists
access to the shopping center. "We've given the customer more
incentive to use the traffic light as the main area of entrance and
exit than previously existed," said Ed Glackin, King Kullen's vice
president of real estate.
"But people will do anything they can to avoid a light and Long
Beach Road," Nancy Hammer countered.
Having lived on Castleton Court since 1978, Hammer said that
when the Foodtown was open, there was a driveway on Foxhurst
Road that shoppers used to enter the parking lot, but it was sealed
off when Commerce Bank was built. Without this driveway, Hammer
said, she is convinced that many motorists will use the driveway
abutting her house to drive down her street to School 6, which
houses the district's kindergarten center, and through the school
property to an exit on Foxhurst Road.
"Why do trucks have to come down this school street?"
Hammer asked. "Why can't the trucks use the entrance with the
signal?"
Sahn said the plans are designed to avoid having trucks mix
with pedestrian traffic in the supermarket and pharmacy parking lot
at the front of the shopping center. Glackin pointed out that Wild By
Nature supermarkets, a subsidiary of King Kullen, are comparatively
small. "So the trucks that will make deliveries are not your typical
tractor-trailers ‹ they're half the size," he said. Sahn explained that
the vehicles that deliver to pharmacies such as Walgreens are box
trucks, not trailers.
Nicolas Comisa, the Hammers' next-door neighbor, is
concerned that the proposed dumpster area will be too close to his
backyard. "I'll have to deal with the smell from this dumpster," he
said.
Sahn said that the dumpster would be for non-food, paper-
type items, and would be stored in a walled-off concrete area.
The Hammers and Comisa are alarmed that King Kullen's off-
street parking variance seeks additional parking on their block, but
the company has another area in mind. Because its lot will provide
only 121 spaces when the town code requires 161, King Kullen is
asking the board to consider offering the supermarket the 48
parking spaces in the town's municipal parking lot across the street
from the site, where the Oceanside Motel once stood.
Asked what the plans are if the zoning board turns down the
proposed pharmacy, Glackin said that the property owner, Al
Rosenberg of the Manhattan-based developer Alrose Group, would
come back with a proposal for four or five small stores.
"This whole area is going through a change," Wright said in his
concluding remarks, highlighting the town's efforts to redevelop the
north end of Long Beach Road. "The town has invested a lot of
money to substantially improve the area ... and this proposal would
do that."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-
4000 ext. 287.
