Dominick’s Italian-American Delicatessen did big business over the Memorial Day weekend preparing platters for parties, and will likely repeat that routine for many more Memorial Days to come.
An agreement affirmed last week between proprietor Dominick Grosso, the property’s owners, the Zito family, and the Town of North Hempstead zoning board of appeals ensures the store’s continued presence at its 401 Herricks Road location.
A zoning snafu had threatened its existence for the past several years.
“We started this thing in 2006. Everything finally worked itself out,” said Pasquale Zito.
The town zoning board of appeals’s approval came last week with some strings attached – that Zito do landscaping on the property the deli occupies on the northwest corner of Herricks Road and Wilson Boulevard. Trees will also be planted in the sidewalk median along Herricks Road and Wilson Street, Zito said.
The plantings are intended to aesthetically improve the property for the deli’s residential neighbors.
It was a complaint from one of the neighbors questioning the property’s use that triggered a series of town hearings for the Zitos and Grosso.
Although the deli is located in a residential zone, a milk barn that previously occupied the located convinced the Zitos and Grosso that a deli met local zoning requirements.
But town officials said the exception granted to the milk barn didn’t cover Dominick’s, which sold deli meats and other food in addition to milk products.
The Town of North Hempstead approved a variance last August proposed by Town Councilman Angelo Ferrara to permit a delicatessen, sandwich shop or bakery at the 401 Herricks Road location.
“It was a very long, stressful couple of years,” Zito said. “I’m glad it worked itself out for Dominick so that he’s able to stay.”
Grosso was visibly elated when the town board approved the variance.
“I feel good,” Grosso said. “I’m just trying to make a living. The people love the place. That’s what kept me there, the people and Angelo Ferrara.”
The town variance restricts businesses operating in the zone to selling food for take-out only and forbids tables and chairs and a drive-through window, according to Michael Levine, town commissioner of planning.
Along with the 15-foot-high landscaped buffer zone, the Zitos must maintain a 350-foot setback from Herricks Road. The variance also restricts the acreage and square footage that can be used.
Ferrara had convened a public hearing in early 2010 at Clinton G. Martin Park with other town officials, seeking to find common ground with the Zitos and members of the community.
“Tell us what you want. We’ll do whatever you want,” Zito told more than 200 local residents that night.
The people who filled the meeting hall at the park that night, voiced strong support for Grosso. They spoke highly of his deli and Gross himself, who they praised for his service as a U.S.
