Islip Town considers site for Costco
A 22-acre parcel is Bay Shore is being considered for a new Costco store. The Islip Town Board would have to change the zoning from industrial to business before the store could be built. Credit: Tiffany L. Clark
The Islip Town Planning Board is considering a proposal to rezone a 22-acre parcel in Bay Shore that could be the site of a Costco.
The planning board held a public hearing on the plan, which would rezone the property from industrial to business. No one from the public weighed in on the subject at the Wednesday night meeting.
Dave Genaway, the town's planning commissioner, said the rezoning is a "first step" in the development process, which will include a town-funded traffic-impact study. Genaway said the town is considering allowing a 140,000-square-foot Costco at the site, which he called "an opportunity to put this extremely blighted property back on the tax rolls."
The town board voted in June to authorize Supervisor Tom Croci to negotiate with P&M Builders and Conklin Services to "remediate" the contaminated environment and build a Costco on the site, at Sunrise Highway and Denver Avenue. Negotiations are ongoing, town officials said.
The site had served as an incinerator, a waste treatment facility and a construction landfill before it was closed in 1982, and would likely require environmental cleanup, officials have said. The planning board will make a recommendation on the rezoning application to the town board, which grants final approval on zoning matters.
In other business, the planning board unanimously approved two applications near the site of the long-stalled $4 billion Heartland development in Brentwood. Outreach Development Corp., which operates an adult group home at 400 Crooked Hill Rd., was a granted a modification of deed covenants and restrictions, allowing the organization, which provides treatment for substance addiction, to construct a two-story building that would serve 25 additional patients. The group now has 55 beds.
The board granted a zone change from industrial to business to allow Think Green Breathe Clean, CNG Corp., to construct a natural gas fueling station on Crooked Hill Road, south of Harned Stub Path. The station would consist of a slow-fueling station for trucks and a fast-fill station with two pumps that would be open to the public.
Similar facilities have opened in Brookhaven and Islandia, officials said.
