The Village of Mineola Board of Trustees delivered a mixed message to Starbucks during a public hearing last week on a proposed “grab and go” coffee shop in the Mineola Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) station plaza.
Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss said he sees the potential traffic Starbucks could generate in its proposed location across the plaza from the westbound LIRR platform as possibly complicating the recurrent gridlock there.
coffee shop in the LIRR station plaza.
“We have historically had horrendous problems with traffic in that neighborhood,” Strauss said, speaking at the April 20 meeting. “It’s just tremendously tough there at any time.”
He said the village will require Starbucks to pay for traffic and parking studies on the coffeeshop’s likely impact in the area.
Trustee Dennis Walsh also expressed concerns about the congestion Starbucks could create in a station plaza where he said 15 to 25 cars arrive five or 10 minutes before each train departure. And he noted vehicles that deliver to the loading dock at Winthrop Hospital move through the station plaza.
“I just foresee people double parking their vehicles, going into Starbucks and clogging up the area,” Walsh said.
Lindsay Trimarchi, real estate store development manager in Starbucks’ New York City metro region, said she isn’t sure where people will park, but she doesn’t think traffic to the store will pose a problem.
“We don’t think we’ll be capturing much traffic,” Trimarchi said.
She said the Mineola store would be one of 73 stores Starbucks owns on Long Island and would have a “standard” Starbucks 10-year lease for the site.
Village attorney John Gibbons said the village would retain the traffic and parking experts for the respective studies and would inform Starbucks of the cost. Neil McDonald, a partner in East Setauket-based WFC Architects, retained by Starbucks to revamp the site, said Starbucks would comply with paying for the traffic and parking studies.
McDonald said the “grab and go” Starbucks store, which would offer no seating, would work as a “walk up” location, drawing LIRR commuters and Winthrop Hospital workers. He said Starbucks would be a significant improvement to the prospective location.
“The storefront involved, which is in a state of disrepair, will undergo a complete renovation,” McDonald said.
Pereira said he thinks a Starbucks in downtown Mineola is a good idea—just not in the location being proposed. He noted there is an empty storefront that formerly housed a delicatessen around the corner from the station plaza location.
Trimarchi said Starbucks had not considered any other locations in the downtown Mineola area.
“We thought this was a good opportunity because it’s an express [LIRR] station,” Trimarchi said. “We think this will be an improvement to the community.”
The village board adjourned the hearing until its May 11 meeting.
