The Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations is decrying an application to put a 7-Eleven in a long-abandoned spot on Plandome Road.
The site is a former mechanic’s shop at 260 Plandome Road that owner David Mandel separated into stalls and offers to rent for commuters taking the Long Island Rail Road, with the Manhasset station directly across the street. An application for a conditional use permit for retail and food use has been filed with the Town of North Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
Mandel, who says he has owned the property for “about three years,” took part in a Zoom call with the council Wednesday night, along with Stonefield Engineering representatives Andrew Villari, a traffic engineer, and Zachary Chaplin, a civil and site engineer. They were also joined by 7-Eleven market manager Samir Dzubur and lawyer Andrea Curto of Forchelli, Deegan and Terrana in Uniondale, representing the convenience store chain.
“Manhasset is a civic-minded community, and we know that you advocate for your residents,” Curto said. “[My client intends] to hire local staff and participate in donating to local organizations, athletic organizations. They want to be part of this community and be a good neighbor.”
Curto said that the location was attractive due to “pedestrian traffic” off Plandome Road and its position near the train station. The property’s lease by 7-Eleven is contingent on approvals from the town, she added, and as of that meeting it would be a corporate store rather than a franchised one.
The council’s first vice president, Andrew Schwenk, said he took issue with the store’s policies of selling vaping products, saying “there was no reason [the store has] to offer these.” He also criticized the idea of the store being open for 24 hours, as most 7-Eleven locations are.
“There’s not really any other business on Plandome Road that stays open for 24 hours,” Schwenk said. “That’s just inviting teenagers to hang out there from midnight to 3 a.m. and vape in the parking lot.”
Schwenk added that he wasn’t comfortable with a store that sold vaping products being in such close proximity to a school, since the proposed site is approximately a quarter of a mile from Manhasset Secondary School. Dzubur, who trains employees for 7-Eleven, later said that all employees were required to check ID on such products to ensure that purchasers were above the age of 21, which is legally required to purchase Juuls and other e-cigarette and vaping devices.
Other members said the proposed store would be “terrible for traffic” on a busy road and echoed Schwenk’s concerns about loiterers in the parking lot, as well as the lot’s lack of parking spaces, with seven stalls and one handicapped parking spot planned.
During the meeting, members often mentioned the council’s 2018 conflict with the company MedMen, which had sent an application to the Town of North Hempstead to put a medical marijuana dispensary on Northern Boulevard. The council led an aggressive campaign against the proposed business, including a protest and what council President Richard Bentley said at the meeting was a 4,000-signature petition. The actions were followed by the town passing a law banning medical marijuana dispensaries from operating as retail outlets. Shortly thereafter, MedMen discontinued its efforts.
Bentley said at one point that he had not yet met a Manhasset resident who was in favor of the project and application, but did suggest a more amenable area might be available.
“I’ve talked to hundreds of residents about this, and not a single one of them thinks this is a good idea for Plandome Road,” Bentley said. “This is something that would fit more on Northern Boulevard.”
The Town of North Hempstead has not yet scheduled a public hearing on the application, and Curto says her “best guess is August or September” due to hearings being delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
