The Village of Williston Park Board of Trustees again reopened a public hearing for Wendy’s to entirely replace its existing location at 259 Hillside Ave. on Monday Feb. 23, where new and existing concerns were discussed.
Wendy’s, represented by attorney Thomas Pantelis, submitted their application last year to have a drive-thru and certain parking variances granted, which the village’s board of zoning appeals accepted. The first public hearing was held last October and then re-opened in December.
The board has reserved their decision on the site plan.
“The existing building is almost 40 years old, and it’s Wendy’s desire to take it down and totally redevelop the site,” Pantelis said in December.
According to village attorney James Bradley, the hearing was re-opened for a second time due to an issue coming before the board in December regarding traffic exiting from the site—specifically the potential restriction of a right-turn onto Burkhard Avenue from Wendy’s.
The restaurant currently has two curb-cut entrance/exits along Hillside Avenue, an entrance/exit onto Burkhard, and no entryway onto Horton Highway.
As discussed at previous meetings, Pantelis has reported to the village that the New York State Department of Transportation is only permitting one curb-cut along Hillside Avenue, to discourage eastbound motorists from making left turns into Wendy’s.
With the option of only one curb-cut along Hillside, and a drive-thru added, the village board as well as residents in the area, specifically on Burkhard, have expressed concern over the potential increased traffic onto Burkhard, as well as throughout the neighborhood that sits behind Wendy’s, specifically coming around to Horton Highway to make a left turn onto Hillside.
John Harter, a principal of Atlantic Traffic & Design Engineers, presented three different scenarios for how the traffic flow would be set up, and referred to the method of restricting a right turn onto Burkhard as “very difficult.” With the drive-thru added, Harter said he expects the traffic flow onto and exiting the site to increase between 20 and 25 percent, which with the highest volume of 13 cars, may be another two or three vehicles per hour.
Resident Joseph Scalero lives near the intersection of Horton Highway and Van Wagner Place, and expressed dismay over the applicant’s proposals, saying, “the fact that the traffic flow goes up that much is not something you have to live with, but I and all the other residents in the area do have to live with.”
Scalero then said that the New York State Department of Transportation does not have the authority to mandate an exit, and the applicant would have to challenge their decision.
Bradley refuted Scalero’s claims as “not legally correct,” saying that Hillside Avenue is a state-controlled road and has full authority to determine access, which Scalero said has been challenged and reversed on numerous occasions on Long Island.
“It is not the village that would bring that action to the state, it would be the applicant to make that petition to the state,” Scalero said. “Its easier to come here and say to the village that you have to let us do this because the state is telling us we have to.”
Bradley encouraged Scalero to submit examples of such reversals to the village board. Scalero had not attended the previous hearings, which Bradley stated that Scalero does not reside within the area of residents that are required to be notified of such an application taking place.
At the December hearing, Pantelis said resubmission plans were made to the DOT, and to date, “is fairly inflexible once they indicate what they want or will allow on Hillside Avenue—we can continue the process, but we just don’t know if that’s going to happen.”
The latest site plan includes a single entrance and exit along Hillside and maintaining the existing driveway on Burkhard. The other two options include renderings of a curb-cut that would only permit a left-turn onto Burkhard, pavement markings indicating “left turn only,” a “no turn on right” sign, a radius modification to suggest no rights out, and a raised island in the center of the driveway.
Williston Park resident Robert Mitchell called the idea of stopping right turns onto Burkhard “foolishness.”
Presenting various traffic flow studies, Harter said the volume of making a right turn onto Burkhard is “very low, in counting about 10 or 12 cars making a right out, we’re talking about a car every five or six minutes, even in peak hours.”
Village trustee Theresa Thomann referred to the numbers presented by Harter as “artificial,” in that they are based on the current situation with two curb-cuts on Hillside Avenue.
“Regardless of the volume, you’re going to have much greater use of the Burkhard exit,” Thomann said.
