The owner of the Shop Delight supermarket in Great Neck Plaza is taking a second shot at opening a second store in Great Neck, and once again receiving resistance.
Edward Yakupov, owner of Shop Delight on Welwyn Road, and his attorney appeared at the Plaza Board of Trustees meeting last Wednesday, seeking approval for a conditional-use permit to operate a butcher and fish store three stores down from the existing glatt kosher supermarket.
Yakupov and attorney Paul Bloom said they would like to move a butcher and fish shop they are currently operating at the supermarket at 4 Welwyn Road to the new location.
“What we’re doing is basically not opening something new, but we’re replacing. We’re relocating,” said Paul Bloom, an attorney representing Yakupov and Big Chefs Inc. “We’re taking it from what is a very confined area within the supermarket and taking it out from supermarket. Taking out the miscommunication, the prep of the meats in the basement, bringing it up to grade level and having it within a beautiful modern operation.”
Bloom said Shop Delight’s meat department currently operates through an intercom system which customers use to send orders down to the basement of the store where employees prepare the order and then bring it up to the customer.
Yakupov said opening the butcher shop would make meat and fish purchasing “more comfortable” for customers.
Great Neck Estates trustees rejected an application to put a second Shop Delight in Great Neck at their July 13, 2015 meeting after Yakupov failed to file an amended application after several months of contentious public hearings.
Village of Great Neck Estates trustees had expressed a wide range of concerns with the supermarket proposal at the former location of a Rite Aid — about a half mile from the Welwyn Road location —including increased traffic, trucks making deliveries, odors from cooking problems related to the Great Neck Plaza supermarket.
While some members of the Great Neck Plaza’s Board of Trustees said they liked the butcher and fish shop proposal, they expressed concerns over violations of Shop Delight’s existing conditional-use permit and traffic safety.
“There’s an issue here of credibility. I think this store is very attractive,” Deputy Mayor Ted Rosen said. “But obviously, if we were to approve it, it requires imposing various conditions. And there has to be an issue of comfort level on our part.”
Rosen said he was worried about safety issues stemming from customers choosing to not use an existing crosswalk to get to the supermarket from the parking lot.
“My concern is that with this store, where it is, that’s only going to increase that we’re going to have more customers going from this store, exiting across the street to the parking lot and basically ignoring the crosswalk that was put in as an important part of your arrangement with the park district,” he said. “That’s a real safety concern.”
The Great Neck Park District has a five-year agreement with Shop Delight that allows shoppers to use the district’s Shoreward Drive parking lot near the Welwyn store during certain times under 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.
Trustee Gerald Schneiderman said he has seen violations of Shop Delight’s conditional-use permit requirements regarding the time of deliveries, which allows for deliveries between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.
“You’ve been in gross violation of your conditional-use permit as of now. I’ve driven by and seen trucks there when they shouldn’t be there and parked in the center isle or places where they shouldn’t be,” he said. “My feeling is I’d like to see you conform to the conditional-use permit you have now before I would expand it.”
Rosen also said he has seen delivery vans offloading items in front of the store rather than in the commercial parking zone.
While he tells delivery companies when to arrive, Yakupov said, they come from other states like California where it is more difficult for them to arrive during a set period of time.
“How can I promise you something I cannot do? It’s not in my control,” he said.
Yakupov also said he has rejected deliveries that have come during restricted hours.
Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said the area may have too much traffic to create conditions that can be actively followed.
“What I’m coming to understand is that it’s really hard to make conditions you can live with. We really have a use over in an area that is largely surrounded by residential homes and it is a very tight area where we have a very busy supermarket that can’t control it’s operations and it’s time frames in these conditions to satisfy quality of life,” Celender said. “Who are we kidding here by trying to set up conditions that you can’t live with that aren’t really appropriate for a supermarket business where, like you say, these trucking companies are not going to adhere to it as much as they’re going to try to and as much as you want them to try to. Its trying to put a use in where it probably doesn’t belong. It’s too busy an activity there.”
Bloom said it would be easier to assure delivery times for the butcher shop compared with the supermarket because it would only receive meat and fish rather than items like fruits, vegetables and other goods.
Schneiderman said the board should take time and see if the applicant could prove he would comply with the existing Shop Delight permit conditions before considering approval for the butcher shop.
“When we have so many violations constantly and so many complaints from neighbors, then I don’t think we should address it until that gets cleaned up,” he said.
The board voted to adjourn permit talks until the Feb. 3 meeting.
