At the Village of Westbury Board of Trustees’ meeting on Thursday, Feb. 5, Taco Bell representatives outlined action steps they say they have taken to improve conditions at their Old Westbury Road location. Residents, however, again urged the board to deny extending Taco Bell’s special use permit, which allows the restaurant to operate its drive-thru until 2 a.m. While the conflict remains unresolved and will be revisited again at next month’s meeting, both sides were gracious in making their case.
After last month’s meeting where residents were vociferous in their frustration with the Taco Bell—too much late-night noise and wayward garbage, and too little property oversight and responsiveness to complaints, residents claimed—the board had asked the restaurant to provide more information on its cleaning and maintenance contracts and permitted volume levels.
In this round both Matthew J. Ingber, Taco Bell’s legal counsel, and Bill Lawson, facilities manager for Taco Bell corporate, thanked the residents for raising their concerns.
“We want our neighbors to be happy,” Lawson said. “As soon as these issues were brought to our attention, we immediately instituted new policies for site maintenance and noise reduction.”
Lawson described how managers will now be required to walk the property’s grounds every few hours monitoring the cleanliness and keeping a log of their inspections. He said signs had been posted around the property reminding customers to keep the noise level down and delivery trucks have been rescheduled to arrive during business hours only.
Village Mayor Peter Cavallaro voiced his displeasure with Taco Bell’s “disrespectful response” and failure to honor the conditions set forth in their special use permit.
“You’re supposed to have operational procedures in place to ensure compliance, but over a span of 10 years you have failed,” Cavallaro said. “It doesn’t matter if you responded right away, you’re not supposed to let these violations happen. You’re going to have to do a much better job going forward or that permit will not be in effect.”
John Morrison, who lives behind the Taco Bell, reiterated his grievances about the restaurant’s littering, noise, and poor fencing along his property, before presenting the board with a petition signed by 50 neighbors requesting the board not to renew Taco Bell’s special use permit.
“We’re not against Taco Bell operating at that location, we just think it should be closed at 10 p.m.,” Morrison said, noting that he and his sons also enjoy eating at the Taco Bell.
Longtime resident Toni Smiles echoed the sentiment.
“All we’re here for is to preserve the safety and integrity of our neighborhood, not to put people out of business,” Smiles said. “We just want them to respect us as we respect them. We’re third- and fourth-generation Westbury residents. Businesses come and go, but we’re still here.”
In addition to the “noise pollution from revving cars and music,” resident Kathleen Smith cited safety concerns related to the restaurant’s late-night hours.
“Late night hours spell trouble to me,” Smith said. “Police are too busy addressing critical issues to be racing back and forth in the night to Taco Bell. I support local businesses, but we’ve put up with a lot.”
In response, Lawson said Taco Bell will review their permit to ensure compliance and work on implementing the suggestions “on what we can do to improve.”
The board requested that Taco Bell submit landscaping and decibel plans ahead of next month’s meeting.
Moving on to less contentious village matters, Cavallaro said “we do have a couple of normal items on the agenda tonight.”
