Village of Great Neck Estates trustees on Monday asked the developers of a possible second Shop Delight glatt kosher supermarket to respond to concerns village residents raised at a public hearing about cars entering and existing a municipal parking lot behind its proposed location at 154 Middle Neck Road.
Mayor David Fox said trustees wanted to make sure all potential issues surrounding the proposed supermarket were addressed.
“In the effort to move this along we don’t want to preclude anything else we should be doing,” Fox said. “Time might be more of an essence, but we still want to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s.”
Several residents at the meeting complained that people entering the exit lane and exiting the enter lane at the former site of a Rite Aid pharmacy is already a problem at the lot.
“We just can’t keep having people going in and out of exits,” Fox said. “Someone is going to get killed.”
Some residents said that they have barely avoided accidents because people enter and exit the wrong way. The lanes, they said, are narrow, and snow often makes it even harder to get to and from the lot.
“The parking lot is all one way, so with trucks backing in and out, people are going to go the wrong way if they don’t want to wait for the truck to make its delivery,” one resident said.
Residents also expressed concerns about additional noise, odors from cooking, snow removal, light coming from the store at night and more people double-parking on Middle Neck Road.
Many residents said people double-park and that putting a supermarket on the road would only cause more double-parking.
Great Neck Estates residents have also expressed concerns about traffic congestion resulting from delivery trucks as well as sanitation and waste disposal at the proposed store.
The proposal to build a 14,500 square-foot, two-story Shop Delight came before the board in December. The proposal location would be second Shop Delight market in Great Neck, less than 10 minutes away from the current store on Welwyn Road.
In January, the board voted to continue the hearing after hearing concerns regarding noise, odor, parking and traffic.
One resident on Monday expressed concerns about the store currently located on Welwyn Road.
“What would happen if they built this new one and then they decided they don’t want the old one anymore,” the resident said. “That could impact traffic at the new supermarket.”
Alan Stein, an attorney representing Great Neck Gourmet Inc., which owns Shop Delight, said the developer had already provided an initial report of various environmental concerns. Stein said he hoped the developer could meet with the village to try to work through the issues and not waste time.
The Great Neck Park District has a five-year agreement with the current store that allows shoppers to use the district’s Shoreward Drive parking lot near the Welwyn store during certain times through a program in which shoppers leave their keys with attendants from the Progressive Valet Parking Corp. of Woodhaven. The plan was intended to alleviate parking problems in the area.
Great Neck Gourmet representatives have said at past meetings that for the new location they are considering traffic-calming measures, such as a valet parking service and transporting stock between stores by van rather than by truck.
