Zoning Board of Appeals Denies Request for Home Depot Pop-Up Garden Center

The Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals voted to deny Commack  request for a temporary pop-up garden center on Thursday. 

Attorney Anthony Guardino presented Home Depot's request for a seasonal outside garden center, which would be located on the west side of the building, and would only be up for the spring and summer months.  The existing garden center would remain.  Home Depot requested a dimensional variance for the proposed garden center, because it exceeded the approved area by 5,270 square feet, and a parking variance of 71 spaces for when the center is operating.

"The challenges have resulted in a long history here…during the springtime and summertime, that's Home Depot's busy garden season…a lot of product is moved through Home Depot during those months and what that has resulted in, because of the challenges that are caused by the building, is that the product ends up being stored outside of the building, predominantly in the back of the building, which is, honestly close to the residents," Guardino said. "We receive complaints, and the town receives complaints, just about every year."

There has been much conflict over the years between Home Depot store officials and neighboring property owners.  Mr. Guardino said that the neighbors complain about seeing the product over the fence, and that, because the material is stored in the back, it must be fork-lifted into the store.  This causes a great deal of noise, even though Home Depot switched to battery-operated fork-lifts, in an attempt to reduce the noise and appease the neighbors. 

Zoning Board Chairman Christopher Modolewski said the area wasn't zoned for industrial purposes and said that it is a "hostile interior roadway," which he argued could prove even more dangerous to pedestrians, if shoppers should choose to walk from the pop-up garden center to the existing garden center.

Zoning Board member Carol Gaughran asked whether or not Home Depot had considered expanding into the empty Marshall's store next store, but Guardino said that he could not discuss that, and added that the building was not open for occupancy.

Home Depot initially requested approval for a food vendor outside the store as well, and to legalize drink and snack vending machines for the store, but withdrew the request before the end of the meeting.  Guardino said that the store had requested a storing and staging center, but had withdrawn that request due to concerns of neighbors near the store.

"This store was opened in 1991…This is the second store on Long Island and the first store in Suffolk County and they acquired a number of former Modell's department stores…The store was a department store…it has low ceilings, it's not anything like the prototypical Home Depot," Guardino said, adding that the store had tried to correct the problem "about seven or 8 years ago" by moving the store about 4 miles away, but the application was denied.

"You have a site right now that does not accommodate a Home Depot appropriately, and while I understand, and recognize, that there are good intentions…I'm just not convinced that this is something that is going to be beneficial to the operations, or the neighboring property owners…it's a low-cost attempt to solve the problem," Modolewski said.