Massapequa resident John Caputo raised concerns over a proposed Starbucks drive through location on Hicksville Road at the Town of Oyster Bay’s public hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 13. After consideration of the public hearing, the town will vote on the matter at a future meeting.
“The drive-through would cause major traffic all the time,” said Caputo.
The site is located at 750 Hicksville Road in Massapequa, and it is adjacent to shopping centers with stores such as Stop & Shop, Island Federal Credit Union, Phil’s Pizzeria and Restaurant and Aspen Dental. There is a Dunkin’ located across the street from the site.
The preexisting storefronts create heavy congestion, and residents are concerned about increased traffic with the addition of a Starbucks drive-thru.
Christian Browne, an attorney at McLaughlin & Stern, said traffic studies do not anticipate increased congestion from the drive-through. The Nassau County Planning Commission and the state Department of Transit have approved the reported traffic studies.
“We have a 12-car queue, which is double the queue required under [the Town of Oyster Bay] regulations,” Browne said.
The site was previously a drive-through bank, and developers will repurpose the existing queue.
“In a sense, it’s really not a new use. It’s a repurposing of the drive-through lane,” said Browne. “We are improving the way that the drive-through operates.”
The Starbucks location would operate daily from 5:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.
“We would also agree to a covenant that restricts deliveries to either the hours in the early morning before the store’s opening or the deliveries would come at night after the store is closed,” said Browne.
He said that this agreement is aimed at limiting traffic on site.
The location would operate as a drive-through-only location, and there would be no indoor seating available for customers.
“In all due respect to the engineers, they don’t live there.” Caputo said.
Caputo said there have been many accidents, some fatal, on the road recently that traffic reports may not reflect.
“We’ve had numerous accidents, and they actually installed a light not too far past [the site] because there were two fatalities there.”
The busyness of the road creates congestion that will worsen with the addition of Starbucks, said Caputo.
“Because of the post office, the skating rink and everything else, I don’t believe that this is the right location for that Starbucks,” Caputo said.
Caputo said that there are empty locations in the shopping center that do not require a drive-through, which would be better suited for the business.
“I’m not saying they can’t have a coffee shop,” Caputo said. “I just don’t understand why they don’t use one of the existing, empty stores in the shopping center to make an actual walk-in.”
“Our analysis shows that the queue provided, which is 12 vehicles, will be more than enough to satisfy that a.m. peak period for Starbucks,” said a representative from Orion Engineering, who conducted the traffic report.
The Town of Oyster Bay will keep the record open for 30 days and revisit the measure at a future board meeting.
