A restrictive covenant between gas station operator Cumberland Farms and the Town of North Hempstead has taken plans for a convenience store back to square one.
The town’s zoning board recently gave the company, which owns the Gulf fuel station at 2201 New Hyde Park Road, permission to build a 4,650-square-foot convenience store there.
But it wasn’t until later that the company told the board about the 1992 restrictive covenant that precludes the store from being bigger than the 750-square-foot legal limit, planning Commissioner Michael Levine said in a statement.
The Town Board has to either modify the covenant or remove it entirely at its Jan. 26 meeting for the project to move forward, Levine said.
Then Cumberland Farms can reapply for the zoning variances.
The convenience store was set for a public hearing at the Dec. 15 Town Board meeting, but it can’t go before that body until the zoning board approves it again.
North New Hyde Park civic activist Marianna Wohlgemuth said she wondered whether the zoning board would let Cumberland Farms put up larger signs at the store than it originally allowed, a concern of residents in the area.
But overall, she said, she was disappointed the project would be delayed.
“We’re looking forward to the site being developed,” Wohlgemuth said. “Right now it looks pretty pathetic.”
