Smithtown mulls zoning change for 7-Eleven

A possible zoning change on a one-acre Commack property at Henry Street and Commack Road would pave the way for a new 7-Eleven with a gas station, according to Smithtown Planning Department documents.

The Smithtown Town Council is considering changing zoning at the property from residential to neighborhood business, a move that town planners said would be compatible with surrounding land uses. The wooded lot neighbors Memorial Sloan Kettering medical offices to the north and east, restaurants and retail to the south and single-family homes in Huntington Town to the west.

“The parcel really is an orphan,” town planner Peter Hans said at a public hearing Tuesday. “It’s residentially zoned surrounded by commercial.” Generally, the town council holds two public hearings before voting, town spokeswoman Nicole Garguilo said. No residents spoke Tuesday at the first hearing.

Cosentino Realty, whose Commack South Shopping Center lies to the east, owns the property. Company officials have not filed a site plan with the town but said in an environmental assessment form that the $5.5 million project could start this year and finish in early 2020.

Smithtown’s 1961 Comprehensive Plan envisioned homes and light industry on and around the property, Hans wrote in an August memo to the town council. Since then, though, zoning for almost all surrounding land was changed to allow for construction of office buildings and large stores, he wrote.