The Village of Great Neck Estates trustees rejected an application to put a second Shop Delight glatt kosher supermarket in Great Neck at their July 13 meeting after the developers of the proposed supermarket failed to file an amended application, village Deputy Mayor William Warner said.
“They abandoned their application,” Warner said. “They had until July 10 to get their amended application in, and they never put it in.”
Great Neck Estates trustees in March asked an attorney for Great Neck Gourmet Inc., which owns Shop Delight, 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.
The proposed Shop Delight — a 14,500 square-foot, two story structure at the site of a former Rite-Aid — would have been the second in Great Neck. Shop Delight operates a store at 4 Welwyn Road in the Village of Great Neck Plaza, a little more than a half mile away.
Warner said Shop Delight could reapply for a new application in the future.
Efforts to reach Alan Stein, the attorney representing Great Neck Gourmet Inc., were unavailing.
Stein said in March Great Neck Gourmet had already provided an initial report of various environmental concerns. He said he hoped the developer could meet with the village to try to work through the issues and not waste time.
Bruce Funk, president at the 69-unit co-op located at 160 Middle Neck Road, adjacent to the proposed supermarket, said he was pleased with the board’s decision to end the application.
Funk, who has opposed the project for months, said the proposed supermarket would have created several environmental issues as well as parking congestion.
A municipal parking lot behind the proposed Shop Delight contains about 200 parking spaces and is used by those looking to shop on Middle Neck Road, Funk said, but about 60-80 cars are licensed to park in the lot full time.
Funk said the developers wanted to remove some additional spaces so large delivery trucks would have space to park.
He said the developers estimated that the store would bring 135 cars an hour to the location, which Funk said would cause massive traffic congestion.
“Aside from the amount of traffic that would affect Middle Neck Road, there would be a massive amount of additional cars that would come there to shop,” Funk said. “There is a danger factor. You’re going to have people walking along and, god forbid, there would be accidents.”
During public hearings on the proposed Shop Delight, residents also complained that motorists frequently enter the exit lane and exit the enter lane — a problem that they said would grow with a new supermarket. They also said the entrance and exit lanes are also narrow making getting in and out difficult — a problem exacerbated by snow.
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.
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 had 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.
