Albertson residents and civic activists are fighting a proposed 7-Eleven convenience store that they say would disturb the otherwise quiet hamlet.
Opening the 24-hour store at 875 Willis Ave. would draw loiterers and increase noise, light pollution and traffic in the nearby residential neighborhood, Albertson Square Civic Association President Ed Scott said.
“We feel that 7-Eleven being the big corporate monster that it is, they’re gonna try to force their way in, no regard to the residents,” Scott said.
The store would open in the 2,282-square-foot building at the corner of Willis Avenue and Bagley Avenue formerly occupied by Mitch & Toni’s restaurant, which closed in August 2014.
The company has applied to the Town of North Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals for variances to landscape buffer and signage rules and a conditional-use permit to sell food, town spokeswoman Carole Trottere said.
Gregory Alvarez, the attorney representing 7-Eleven’s application, deferred questions to a company spokesperson. No 7-Eleven representative responded a request for comment made through Alvarez and another sent to the company media relations office.
The town referred the application to the Nassau County Planning Commission in March, Scott said, but the county sent it back to the town after learning of the opposition.
Trottere said those referrals are standard procedure and the application is now pending.
Albertson residents Joanne Lee DeBuona and Bruce Kaplan sent a letter to the county Planning Commission outlining their concerns about the store, saying there are no other 24-hour businesses in Albertson.
The store would send “hundreds of cars” through the neighboring residential streets, unlike the former restaurant, which was open for only a few hours each day, they wrote.
The increased traffic and potential loitering create quality-of-life concerns for residents of the adjacent neighborhood, they wrote.
“We have very high taxes here in Nassau County. The needs of the county residents must take precedent over the wants of a faceless corporation,” DeBuona and Kaplan wrote.
Scott said the store would be better suited for a commercial area near the Long Island Expressway in Roslyn Heights, where a 24-hour CVS store already operates.
Residents would like to see another restaurant replace Mitch & Toni’s on Willis Avenue, he said.
“I’m definitely about business, but the reality is that we know what transpires once a 7-Eleven opens up,” Scott said.
Other 7-Eleven convenience stores have met opposition in Great Neck and Mineola in recent years before being approved.
Village of Great Neck trustees voted 4-1 in 2013 to let a 24-hour store open on Middle Neck Road despite the county Planning Commission recommending it be rejected.
Mineola’s Village Board approved a store at 400 E. Jericho Turnpike in October, reversing its original decision under an order from the state Appellate Division court after a three-year legal battle.
The approval came with came a set of restrictions on traffic flow, lighting, deliveries and maintenance that the court said the village could impose.
