‘I’m Not Lovin’ It’: McDonald’s Proposal Draws Pushback At Huntington Zoning Board Hearing

GREENLAWN, NY — A proposal to demolish a vacant former bank in Greenlawn and replace it with a drive-thru McDonald’s drew scrutiny from residents and officials at a Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals hearing Thursday.

An application for a new McDonald’s restaurant at 260 E. Pulaski Road, at the corner of Park Avenue, calls for demolishing a former bank building and constructing a 3,797-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru and 32 seats, according to the applicant.

After hours of testimony from residents and several questions from Huntington zoning officials, the board did not make a decision Thursday.

The applicant is seeking a special use permit and several forms of zoning relief, including relief related to the town’s food shop definition, parking, parking setback and signage/menu boards.

Applicant representative Allison LaPointe, representing McDonald’s, told the board the proposal would redevelop a vacant commercial property that previously operated with a bank drive-through and drive-up ATM.

The project, she said, would reduce the number of curb cuts from three to two, replace the existing sanitary system with a new wastewater treatment system and grease trap and add landscaping and buffers to the site.

“We recognize that the subject location abuts two busy county roads,” LaPointe said. “We put forth that this is precisely why this location is excellent for the proposed use.”

LaPointe said McDonald’s relies largely on passing traffic, rather than customers making the restaurant their primary destination.

“McDonald’s model largely depends on passing traffic, on drivers who are dipping into the site to grab a cup of coffee or to grab some lunch, and then continue onwards toward their destination,” she said.

The proposal includes 37 parking spaces, though more would be required under the town code. LaPointe said the applicant’s traffic and parking analysis found the peak parking demand would be about 15 vehicles during a Friday evening peak period, and argued that building all code-required spaces would lead to unnecessary paving.

The board’s questioning focused heavily on traffic.

“Traffic is a critical issue in this application,” Chairman W. Gerard Asher said to the applicant. “There’s no data in your report that indicates what the traffic flow was like for a McDonald’s or any other fast-food restaurant, for that matter, that’s located in a similar situation, which has two busy cross streets, not just one.”

Crash data in the applicant’s traffic report showed 122 crashes at the intersection from 2020 to 2024, and the crash rate appeared to be about four times higher than the statewide average cited in the report.

“The intersection of Park Avenue and Pulaski Road is not just another corner,” Suffolk County Legislator Rebecca Sanin said. “It is the convergence of two heavily traveled county arterials that serve residents, businesses, healthcare facilities, emergency responders, and countless daily commuters.”

Sanin said the crash rate cited in the applicant’s traffic study should be enough to give the board pause.

“If an intersection is already performing at a level significantly worse than comparable locations across New York State, the burden should be on the applicant to demonstrate with compelling evidence that introducing a high-volume drive-through use will not make existing conditions worse,” Sanin said.

The applicant’s traffic engineer, Ethan Schukoske, said that while the rate was higher than the statewide average, many of the crashes were rear-end collisions and fatal and injury crashes were below another safety threshold used in the analysis.

Several residents and officials raised concerns, arguing that the proposal would be out of character with the neighborhood.

“I’m not lovin’ it,” Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said. “I cannot think of a worse location for a drive-through restaurant than Park Avenue and Pulaski Road. This location is not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.”

Cold Spring Harbor resident Dr. Paul Kravitz told the board the question was not whether McDonald’s is a good company or whether people enjoy eating there.

“Make no mistake about it, this is going to be a major throughput of traffic,” he said.

Kravitz said a bank, medical office or professional office would generate a very different traffic pattern than a drive-thru restaurant, especially in an area he said is used by elderly patients and people visiting medical offices.

“Introducing a high-volume drive-through use at this corner will make the area more congested, more chaotic, and less convenient for the very residents who rely on these services,” he said.

Huntington Station resident and retired nurse practitioner Mary Beth White said she started a petition opposing the proposal and that, as of the hearing, it had 537 signatures and more than 175 comments. Her main concern centered on emergency access along Park Avenue.

“If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, seconds count,” White said.

Other residents brought up concerns involving late operating hours and app-based food delivery services, which they said could attract drivers to a busy location.

“A bank does not keep that kind of hours,” East Northport resident Denise Schwartz said. “A bank drive-through is nothing like a McDonald’s drive-through. If that McDonald’s was to go there, and it turned out to be a busy location, drivers are going to want to go there, because they like to go to the place where they can get the most bang for their buck.”

The applicant presented testimony from real estate appraiser Paul Dykes, who said he was retained to evaluate whether the proposed McDonald’s would negatively affect surrounding property values or the character of the area.

LaPointe said McDonald’s would respond to board and resident concerns with additional information. She said the applicant would revise its original 24-hour drive-thru request and instead move toward hours closer to 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., with interior restaurant access ending at 11 p.m. Deliveries, she said, were expected two to three times per week during off-peak hours.

The applicant was given about two weeks to respond to the board’s questions, especially on traffic, and Asher said the board could retain its own traffic expert or other counsel if needed.

Still, residents said the arguments were not centered on whether the vacant bank should remain empty, but on whether the site could be put to a better use.

“We do not have a fast food shortage, so the question isn’t this or an empty bank, it’s this or something better,” Huntington resident James Barracca said.