Vote nears for Mattituck 7-Eleven
Developers who have proposed building a 7-Eleven in Mattituck may find out their fate as soon as next Monday, when the Southold Town Planning Board is tentatively scheduled to vote on the proposal.
If approved, the convenience store will be built on the site of a closed Citgo gas station on the northeast corner of Factory Avenue and Route 25, just west of the Waldbaums shopping center.
The project’s developer, George Abi Zeid of GAZ Realty and his consultants, including Vincent Corrado, an engineer with Dunn Engineering who prepared a traffic study for the project, addressed several minor issues with their site plan with the town planning board at a work session Monday afternoon.
The developers plan to reconfigure the parking to provide more room for cars to back up and will remove the parking space closest to the entrance to the property on Factory Avenue, which will be “land banked,” or included as a landscaped area in the plan that can be developed into a parking space if it is needed later.
They also plan to change a proposed sign at the Factory Avenue entrance to read “No Delivery Trucks.” The sign on the original plan simply read “No Trucks.” The developers also plan to widen the Rt. 25 entrance to the property and provide a landscaping plan for an area in the back of the property where they will need to remove vegetation in order to update the existing building’s septic system. The project will utilize the existing gas station building but will include a 685-square-foot addition. Existing gas pumps and a canopy over the gas pumps will be removed.
The majority of the Planning Board members were satisfied with the updated information on the project.
“My questions have been answered,” said board member Ken Edwards.
“A myriad number of things have been done to improve traffic in the area,” said board member Joe Townsend.
Board member Bill Cremers said that he is still concerned that the project will mean more traffic conjestion for Factory Avenue.
“I live near the property. I know the problems with it,” he said.
The developers need to receive a letter from the New York State Department of Transportation stating that the department is in favor of the minor chances and provide an updated drawing of the property before the project can be voted on next week.
“The letter will come fairly quickly,” Town Planning Director Heather Lanza told the applicants. “But we literally can’t do an approval without the DOT.”
The planners and developers agreed that they would have a better idea by the end of the week if the project can be put up for a vote on Monday.
“Who should I hug first?” asked Mr. Abi Zeid as the board and applicants wrapped up their discussion.
