More storage might be coming to Floral Park, but Stewart Manor’s 4th of July parade certainly isn’t.
Storage Post, a self-storage center at 50 Carnation Ave., came to the village’s board of trustees to ask for permission to build 104 one-story drive-up units where the facility currently has a large parking lot with over 100 spaces, which they rent out.
Andrea Tsoukalas, an attorney for the storage center, said Storage Post was looking to make this change to expand their business and respond to concerns related to high traffic in the area and the aesthetics of large vehicles in the lot.
Through this change, the storage facility will stop renting parking spaces to a limo company, an action that has been at the heart of complaints against the parking rentals, and limit the spaces where large trucks can park.
“This change will reduce the number of cars entering and exiting the site, so it will reduce any impact on the neighbors,” Tsoukalas said. “Because it’s going to decrease activity on the site, it’s going to have a positive effect on the neighborhood.”
If the new storage units are constructed, around 50 parking spaces will still be available in the center’s lot. The existing facility and new units would only be accessed during certain hours of the day by a code that permits customers to move through a fence securing the property.
After asking a series of questions, the board thanked Storage Post’s team for the presentation and unanimously voted to reserve a decision on their application until they could review the hearing transcript. Floral Park Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald said the board would likely have a decision by their July 15 meeting.
After hearing from Storage Post, the board voted down the Stewart Manor Fire Department’s 4th of July parade a second time.
At their May 20 meeting, the board denied the fire department the road closures they initially requested for the annual parade. Fitzgerald said the village believed the parade’s use of water balloons was a dangerous liability for Floral Park.
Fitzgerald said the fire department had sent in another revised application to the board of trustees for the parade, proposing an alternate route that would reduce the amount of time the parade would spend in Floral Park.
Fitzgerald said the board still decided to vote down the parade again because they believed the liability issue with the water balloons remained, and the village did not want to spend the necessary money to provide police security and sanitation within the village for an event that was not a village event.
It is unclear whether the Stewart Manor Fire Department will attempt to find another alternative route for their parade.
