The proposal for a 7-Eleven at the corner of Middle Neck and Steamboat Rd. in Great Neck has provoked fear and fury among nearby village of Great Neck homeowners.
There are many reasons to condemn this completely unnecessary and supremely selfish business venture. But notwithstanding the residents’ overwhelming rejection of a 7-Eleven, Village of Great Neck officials keep repeating the mantra of we-can’t-lose any-more-business-tax-money.
Actually, Village of Great Neck residents largely agree with this goal, but it occurs to us – so why not to them? – that the business tax issue doesn’t have to have a 7-Eleven solution. I went to village hall to look up a fact or two: It turns out that Village of Great Neck hasn’t lost as much as a dime – not a penny – due to the closing of the former Mobil gas station. This is because Exxon/Mobil has continued to pay all of the regular village business taxes due on that parcel.
The tax bill is up to date, paid in full. So why is Village of Great Neck pushing so hard to get a new owner, even one as unwelcome as a 7-Eleven? Who will pay the required business taxes?
We have a paid-up property owner; why change? For starters, Exxon/Mobil has already contaminated the soil and underground watershed. That’s the reason nothing desirable can be built on the site: the surface soil cannot be disturbed; no residence can be built; no basement can be excavated. The soil can’t be disturbed for fear of even further spreading the contaminants Exxon/Mobil has left under our homes.
However, it isn’t just our subterranean resources that have been destroyed; the contamination has also destroyed our ability to build anything good on top of that site.
Instead we are stuck with cheap, unwelcome stuff like a 7-Eleven, which can be built on a concrete slab with little or no subsurface excavation. Regardless of anything else, this catastrophically polluted site is to be Exxon/Mobil’s permanent legacy in our village.
No matter what is plopped onto the surface, Exxon/Mobil will forever (or until expiration of the half-life of plutonium, whatever comes first) be liable for the underground damage it has already caused and will cause in the future. Just as Exxon/Mobil is and will be responsible for what lies below, so should Exxon/Mobil be equally responsible for what sits on top. Exxon/Mobil is already paying all the business taxes levied on the parcel, and well it should.
Exxon/Mobil has forever ruined all possibilities of upgrading the area. No, thanks to the toxic spill and its spreading plume of contaminants, we’re just stuck, victimized first by Exxon/Mobil and now, as a direct causal effect, we’re at the mercy of supremely selfish business vultures looking only for a quick personal profit and a fast exit. But I think there’s another way. I think it’s a good way which should satisfy all but the few seeking personal profit from environmental disaster.
Exxon/Mobil could – and should – build a nice “environmental center” or similar information kiosk. Toxin-eating trees and grasses could be planted to help dissipate the residues. Benches could be installed for the many pedestrians in our neighborhood. So why is Village of Great Neck sacrificing its residents rather than making a long-overdue deal with Exxon/Mobil? It’s not like the global giant isn’t liable already; all the company has to do is to simply continue to pay the business taxes they have so far properly paid. Why isn’t Village of Great Neck acting pro-actively to really improve the bad situation rather than making it worse by allowing an unwelcome, ugly and intrusive business to annoy us 24 hrs/day, seven days/year?
That just adds life-style misery to our already grievous injury. Exxon/Mobil certainly owes us at least the pittance that our business taxes mean to them. At the very least we should not let Exxon/Mobil off the financial hook by permitting a slab-mounted, all-night deli to take over payment of these taxes. Why isn’t Exxon/Mobil’s money just as good as any successor business owner’s? The plume of contaminants is relentlessly spreading west, toward and under more of Village of Great Neck, village of Kings Point, the Merchant Marine Academy and even our irreplaceable Kings Point Park.
All area residents will be much better off if we have a small, attractive office on the site. It would of course be a business office, paying business taxes. All of our politicians, whether village, town, county, state or federal, should – must – communicate with Exxon/Mobil to make a deal. Business and real estate opportunists will have to lose this time. Village of Great Neck will lose nothing by taking this route. As I said, the business taxes are being paid; there is not a single penny being lost to Village of Great Neck coffers.
So, if any of our readers have relatives in Exxon/Mobil, or can get through to any of our state and federal officials, please call them immediately; please beg for their intervention.
After all, as the toxins spread west, how many more of our properties are going to be limited to slab-only development in the future? This isn’t even a hard sell: Exxon/Mobil is liable and they know it. Why can’t that super-rich global conglomerate put an attractive environmental monitoring center on the site of the old gas station?
Instead of a desk for police officers, as offered by 7-Eleven, we could have a desk for DEC officers to keep closer tabs on the spreading plume. Exxon/Mobil has destroyed all residential and desirable business potential for the site but our officials should not now let the damage metastasize by allowing business opportunists to take further advantage of us. Village of Great Neck can’t handle Exxon/Mobil all by itself; so call your congressional representative; call your U.S. and NYS senators; call your relatives at Exxon and everyone else you know who can help.
Because this isn’t just about 7-Eleven: that sad and dangerous proposal is just the surface indication of a much larger problem. Exxon/Mobil can at least partially remediate the economic damage by continuing to pay Village of Great Neck’s business taxes, probably forever.
Elizabeth Allen
Great Neck
