Town OKs covenant change, paves way for convenience store

Joe Nikic

The North Hempstead Town Board unanimously voted Tuesday to modify a restrictive covenant and allow the construction of a Cumberland Farms convenience store on the site of a gas station at the intersection Marcus Avenue and New Hyde Park Road in New Hyde Park.

Town Councilwoman Lee Seeman, who represents the district in which the proposed convenience store is located, said the board would impose a deed restriction allowing the convenience store to be built at the largest size possible.

“This way the (Board of Zoning Appeals) conditions are not reopened and all the concessions that the community have asked for are included in this new restriction,” Seeman said.

The town BZA approved an application in 2015 for Cumberland Farms to build a 4,650-square-foot convenience store and gas station on a site currently occupied by a Gulf service station.

But the town later learned that a 1992 restrictive covenant precludes the store from being bigger than 750 square feet, planning Commissioner Michael Levine said last month.

An attorney for Cumberland Farms said at the Jan. 26 town board meeting his client had no intention of modifying what was agreed upon prior to the discovery of a restrictive covenant with the Town of North Hempstead.

“If the board lifts the restricted covenant we will abide by the BZA’s prior approval and build what we had all agreed would be appropriate for the property,” attorney Steven Schlesinger said. “We’re not looking to change that at all.”

North New Hyde Park civic activist Marianna Wohlgemuth said at past meetings she was concerned the company would decide to alter their original plans and seek approval to subdivide the property if the board lifted the covenant.

Schlesinger reiterated Tuesday his client still had no intention of modifying the BZA agreement.

Levine said some of the original conditions of the covenant were removed and five new conditions were added.

One of the conditions, he said, restricted the convenience store to nothing larger than one story and 4,650 square feet of area space. 

The other four conditions were all signage requirements for the convenience store, Levine added. 

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