Baldwin residents fuming over gas station proposal next to Barclay Condominiums

Residents of the Barclay Condominiums at Baldwin Harbor remember the banks that once operated at the southeastern corner of Atlantic and Grand avenues with fondness and are incensed at the idea of a 24-hour gas station with a 7-Eleven convenience store rising just behind their fence. 

Nearby residents are pushing back against the proposal over concerns it will hurt their health, quality of life and property values.

“There's a clear stigma, with reason, for … living near a gas station,” said Julie Dixon, 57, an accounting manager, who has lived next to the proposed site since 2000. “There are emission concerns. ... You have to get special zoning for a gas station.”

Dixon said her son advised her to sell her condo if the gas station gets approved. Vehicles using the shuttered bank property for parking are already a problem, she said.

“We already have noise pollution with that because they come up, they play their bass in the cars very loudly,” she said. “Sometimes it rattles the walls.”

At a Dec. 5 hearing at the Hempstead Town Board, the lawyer for the developer summarized the site plan for the proposed gas station but didn’t discuss the zoning requirements and variances that were scheduled for discussion.

Baldwin 792 LLC, registered in Great Neck, is seeking a change in zoning to the property to include it in the town’s Gasoline Service Station District, a zoning overlay that adds requirements to commercial-zoned properties that operate as gas stations. It is also seeking more than half a dozen variances, including a waiver of a prohibition against siting a gas station within 1,000 feet of other gas stations and certain auto maintenance businesses. 

When the Hempstead building department reviewed the site plan for the gas station, it identified eight violations of the GSS district regulations, according to a Nov. 21, 2021 letter included in the project application file. Among the violations noted was the 1,000 foot rule — the map submitted by the developer showed an existing gas station and three auto maintenance shops within that radius. The developer’s attorney, William Bonesso, of Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP, informed the town in a Dec. 2, 2021 letter that it was seeking multiple variances. 

At the hearing, however, neither the developer nor the town board brought up variances.

“The project will reintroduce a viable and desirable use to the property,” Bonesso told the board. “The site improvements will not only provide a new more attractive building than this one, but will also provide for greater landscaping, new street trees, new sidewalks and other aesthetic amenities.”

Baldwin 792's principals are Keith Pellegrino, owner of an adjacent gym called Synergy Fitness, and developer Adam Mann, of Great Neck-based AJM Capital LLC. 

Bonesso said the developer would put an 8-foot brick wall between the pumps and the condos’ backyard but that didn’t appease residents. Ten residents expressed concerns about health and noise pollution and questioned why the 1,000 foot rule town code should be waived.

“You will never put your family members next to a gas station,” said Faith Kenney, a nurse who said she’s lived there for 20 years. “It decreases the value of the property. It's carcinogenic.”

Benzene, which is found in gasoline, is a known carcinogen, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The air around ... gas stations can contain higher levels of benzene than in other areas,” according to the CDC’s website.

The town created the Gasoline Service Station District in 1974 to “prevent excess of service station construction” and "conserve property values," according to the town code.

The applicant is seeking inclusion in that district and least seven variances. Bonesso said in an interview the variances weren’t discussed at the hearing because town staff was aware of them.

“The [Town] Board is concerned with the application but they’re not concerned with the minutiae,” Bonesso said.

In a statement Thursday, town spokesman Greg Blower said: “The Town Board reserved decision on the matter and we do not comment on pending applications."

Bonesso said the town has granted similar variances before and should grant these as well. He also said the station would be built to standards designed to mitigate health and environmental hazards.

Though records show the developer has gone back and forth with town staff about the proposed gas station for more than two years, residents said they only learned about it days before the hearing. 

“Our main concern is having a gas station with fumes,” Jeanette Vesey, 71, a resident and vice-president of the condo association said in an interview.

“We don’t know what contamination it can create. This is not a 9-5 situation, it’s 24 hours a day,” added Vesey, noting that children play in the grassy areas of the condo property. 

“I wouldn’t have bought this house if there was a gas station there,” Vesey said. “If they put another bank there we’d be thrilled.”

The town board reserved decision on the application following the hearing. It’s unclear when the board will vote on it.