It's Not What They Crave: Bellmore Residents Oppose White Castle Proposal at Zoning Hearing

Bellmore residents came out to a Hempstead Town zoning hearing regarding a proposed White Castle in full force yesterday to preserve the character of their community.

Deeply concerned about the potential increase in traffic, noise, litter, loitering and transient clientele a White Castle could bring, over 100 families from the the Bellmore Preservation Group scraped together funds to hire legal representation from Chris Benes of the Westbury-based firm, Gold, Stewart, Kravatz, Benes & Stone, LLP.

Before the hearing began, zoning board member Robert O'Brien said that Town of Hempstead Building and Zoning Board Chairman David Weiss recused himself from the case because he is the private attorney for one of the property owners in this case, Bill Sette. Sette owns three lots which White Castle is seeking to purchase in order to construct a fast food restaurant.

"We are both longtime residents of Bellmore and good friends," O'Brien read in a statement prepared by Weiss.

The hearing was to address several variances requested by White Castle necessary to construct a fast food restaurant on the corner of St. Mark's Avenue and Sunrise Highway. White Castle was represented by Mineola attorney Thomas Pantelis.

Three private homes, all currently rented and owned by Sette, and Wick's Auto Body occupy the above-mentioned lots. The site is zoned for commercial use, however White Castle is requesting variances for several items including:

• installation of two drive-thru windows
• waive off street parking
• special exception to construct refuse/recycle enclosure in conjunction with proposed restaurant
• special exception to park in front yards setbacks on Sunrise Highway, St. Mark's Avenue and Royle Street
• installation of one double-faced, illuminated, detached ground sign on the corner of Sunrise Highway and St. Mark's Avenue
• installation of one menu board sign (along drive-thru route)

The zoning board listened to arguments from both sides and took comments from the public for nearly eight hours. The Board of Appeals consists of seven members who are each appointed to five-year terms by the Hempstead Town Board. Their main function is to hold official public hearings and render formal, written decisions on cases brought before it.

White Castle Systems Inc. is based in Columbus, OH. Founded in 1921 in Wichita, KS, they operate 421 fast food restaurants in 10 states. Ten of these stores are located on Long Island. All stores are owned by the company and are not franchises. 

The proposed site for White Castle on the corner of St. Mark's Avenue and Sunrise Highway would be an 2,100 sq. ft. building with an all-white facade. Facing  Applebee's (St. Mark's Avenue), the building would stand 18' 8" at its lowest point and 22' 8" at its highest point. The entrance/exit would be at Sunrise Highway.  It would also have a drive thru lane for customers and a car queue. It would have seating for 28 patrons and employ 30 to 35 people. A maximum of eight employees would be on duty simultaneously.

"We would run ads and hire from the local community," Assistant Regional Director of Restaurant Operations for New York Thomas Bray said.

White Castle's legal team addressed each item they were seeking a variance for.

Trash

According to legal counsel, a morning and afternoon trash pick up would be completed by employees within a two block radius of the restaurant.

"We could do that more often," Bray said. "We like to keep the neighborhood clean of all trash, not just our own."

A private refuse broker will come in to collect trash from the refuse/recycle enclosure three times a week.

"We can control the hours of pick up," Bray said.

Deliveries

A 22-foot long box truck will deliver to the food establishment twice a week. The truck is 12.5 feet high and holds 10 pallets.

"We can ask for an AM delivery before lunch," Bray said.

Zoning board member Douglas Dana inquired about a trash compactor on site. Bray responded, "we can use either," and he referred to trash tanks.

"We probably would go with [trash] tanks," he added.

24-Hour Operation

The restaurant portion would close at a specific hour, however the drive thru would remain open 24 hours a day.

"White Castle takes pride in serving people whenever they're hungry," Bray said. 

Security

Bray said security is the same in all of its New York White Castle restaurants. Sixteen cameras monitor indoor and outdoor activity. Buttons on employees' person and under the counter, as well as a special phone are directed to an independent, off-site central monitoring system.

"Ninety percent of situations can be resolved [by employees]," Bray said.

Odors

White Castle said they are willing to invest $34,000 in a Smog Hog, an industrial fume extractor.

"It virtually eliminated all odors through a charcoal system," Bray said.

Eric Meyn of Ronkonkoma-based Bohler Engineering was the witness for the site plan, landscaping and lighting concerns.

There was an immediate issue with the board not having the most up-to-date site plans that were properly submitted by White Castle in December 2009. Once that was resolved, it was on to other items.

Landscaping and Fencing

There would be a six-foot PVC fence along the Royle Street property line and a four-foot aluminum faux wrought iron fence along Sunrise Highway and St. Mark's Avenue. Other trees and shrubbery would also be included in landscaping strips along the site's frontage.

"This will deaden headlight glare and help stop any blowing trash," Meyn said.

Menu/Order Board

A 25-sq. ft. menu/order board will face St. Mark's Avenue.

"We purposely oriented it away, so the sound projected to the board wouldn't be directed towards the residents," Meyn said.

According to acoustical studies cited by Meyn, the menu board emits sound at 92 decibels. This can be compared to a train whistle at 500 feet away or truck traffic - both common this area. Meyn further stated that once 30 feet away, that sound level drops to 65 decibels, which is compared to a normal conversation being held at three to five feet.

There is a day/night audio level for the sign that can be manually adjusted.

"Since this is a 24-hour establishment, I don't think people will want to hear someone ordering a hamburger while they're sleeping," zoning board member Gerald Wright said, voicing concerns about whether nearby residents will be able to hear people shouting into the order box or the person on the other end.

The board inquired if they were to set the condition that any sound would have to stop at the property line would White Castle comply and counsel responded that they would.

A question of enforcement was then broached.

Lighting

According to Meyn, 400-watt high pressure sodium fixtures would be used on the site. Mounted at 15-feet, they would also have shields.

"Applebee's, I believe is at 25-feet with no shields," Meyn said. "This leads to [light] spill over and glare."

They would also use seven-foot lights for pedestrian visibility.

Traffic

John Harter of Atlantic Traffic & Design Engineers, Inc. in Ronkonkoma offered traffic studies from last June that were completed at the Deer Park and West Hempstead White Castle locations.

Board member Wright voiced concern that Harter was merely giving the report and had not conducted the research himself, nor visited the site.

"Your name is not on the report and if you are here to just give me a conclusion...," Wright said. "I want to ask questions to people who actually did this."

Harter responded that it was the "industry standard" to have "field people go out and do the counts."

A lower level traffic engineer and a higher level engineer then look over the data, Harter said.

"This goes way beyond the industry standard," Pantelis added.

Another discrepancy arose when an Institute of Transportation Engineers trip generation report [explaining how many cars visit White Castle at particular times] had apparently not been made available to the Benes and his clients. That paperwork was provided to Benes for review at the hearing.

According to Harter, an ITE trip generation study was conducted from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday and noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday. The peak hours were found to be 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. and noon to 1 p.m. On Friday, 36 vehicles visited to White Castle during the peak hour and 64 on Saturday during the peak hour.

A study at the Deer Park store, which is located between Deer Park Avenue and Half Hollow Road and is 1,400-sq. ft., revealed that between two and 21 cars every hour visited White Castle on Thursday and Friday from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Benes raised issue with Harter that no traffic studies were done between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m., which is the time nearby homeowners are most concerned about. Nor was a traffic study completed about the through traffic on Royle Street or St. Mark's Avenue.

Harter said he completed the "industry standard for fast food use."

"There are other uses [for this site] that could be permitted but would generated more traffic," Harter said.

Board member Dana pointed out, "these are all assumptions."

"There is no way to see how  much traffic [there will be] until it opens," he added.

Dana questioned why White Castle's engineers were not using the Massapequa or Lynbrook locations for comparison, as both are located on Sunrise Highway.

Bray responded that Lynbrook does not have a drive thru window and Deer Park was chosen because of similarities including a nearby church and a school and a residential area [as does the proposed Bellmore location].

Dana continued to question the accuracy of the trip numbers, stating that this would be the only fast food restaurant of its kind on Sunrise Highway between Baldwin and Seaford and that might account for a higher number of visitors.

Drive Thru

Two drive thru windows are included in the proposed site plan. One is for transactions and the other for picking up orders. There are designated parking spots to the right of the drive thru and a crosswalk proposed in the middle of the drive thru queue.

Wright pointed out several concerns he had about this part of the site plan, including a customers ordering in the drive thru and not paying attention to pedestrian to the right as they pull away in their vehicle.

"Nothing stood out to me that this was untypical or that it would be unsafe," Harter said. "This is typical of other fast food restaurants."

"I am not concerned with other fast food restaurants," Wright responded.

Joining the hearing late, board member Christian Browne added that "there has been much relevant testimony about the detriment nature of a drive thru [at this location]."

Real Estate Appraisal

Defense counsel called on Barry Nelson, a commercial real estate appraiser and broker based in East Meadow. Nelson said he has 25 years industry experience.

While Nelson said he had not performed specific appraisals on properties at this location, he did respond to Benes' statements that certain things - excess noise, smell, light and increased traffic - saying they "may have an impact on the residential property."

The Community Speaks

Wayne Edwards, a representative for Senator Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) said the senator "feels this application will have a significant impact on the health and safety" of residents.

"Since the proposed site will only increase traffic congestion for the residents of the area, I am opposed to the opening of a White Castle restaurant," Fuschillo wrote in a previous letter to the board. "Therefore, I request that their application be denied."

Legislator Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) received a standing ovation after he made his statements. He said that the "traffic patterns and boundaries being created can never be taken back."

"Everyone here has fought so hard to prevent St. Mark's Avenue from becoming a cut-through street," he added. "I don't think anyone would be here here if this didn't fit into the neighborhood."

Bellmore Preservation Group member Edward Lupardo of 321 St. Mark's Avenue said that, if approved, "this is going to significantly reduce our quality of life in a place we chose [to live]."

The Director of Operations for Applebee's said his managers and employees requested he attend the hearing. He mentioned how impressed he was with the residents' unity and devotion to their community. He also said he visited the Lynbrook, Massapequa and Deer Park White Castle stores between 1 and 3 a.m. for researching purposes.

He added that he frequently saw vehicles parked in the parking lot after ordering food and then people throwing the garbage out of their car window.

Chet Billeci of 402 Washington Ave. said he and his family walk along St. Mark's Avenue on a regular basis and his 10-year-old rides his bicycle in the area. He addressed the board with his young daughter on his lap.

"I am worried for the safety of my family," said Billeci, an electrical union worker who took the day off  to attend the hearing. "It's not what we need. It's not what we want."

Len Torchia of 2637 Clarendon Ave. said he just completed major renovations on his home to keep it within the style of the community. He said his wife said she would want to move if White Castle opens up. The couple has four children, one of whom was with Torchia as he addressed the board.

Speaking on behalf of the Bellmore Preservation Group, Benes said that the fast food company "brings the wrong activity to the community at the wrong time of day."

"You have a company that is headquartered in Ohio, making decisions about a community that they know nothing about," Benes added.

Decision

According to Hempstead Town Press Secretary Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky, each side's attorney will receive the minutes of the hearing within three weeks.

"They will then have 30 days to present their findings of fact," she added. "A decision will be rendered subsequent to that."