7-Eleven Files Suit Against Mineola for Denied Permit

Convenience store giant 7-Eleven has filed a lawsuit against the Village of Mineola after the denied a permit for a .

Attorneys for the national convenience store chain filed papers known as an “Article 78,” which is part of the civil code which states that a petitioner may seek judicial review of an administrative procedure, in the .

The board had previously to build a 24-hour, 2,500 sq. ft. convenience store located at 400 East Jericho Turnpike at the northeast corner of Jericho Turnpike and Jay Court, focusing its decision primarily on safety, entrance and exits, stacking of cars, traffic crossing lanes to get to the business and the potential for accidents resulting. The decision also referenced that the office to the east exits its vehicles through the proposed store parking lot.

In court papers filed on April 18 by the Garden City-based Amato Law Group, which is representing 7-Eleven, the group puts forth the claim that the board of trustees bowed to “political pressure on the Village” in a “desire to appease ” by issuing the denial.

Attorneys produce a quote in their paperwork from trustee Paul Cusato, who stated that “Several months ago, this place was packed with concerned residents. I’m here to support them.”

Mineola Village Trustee Lawrence Werther is extensively quoted in the filing as an argument for approving the application with comments he made during the March 14 meeting being cited:

The only reason that 7-Eleven is before us here is because they are serving food... There are a number of ‘as of right’ uses that the building could be constructed to do. If the same deliveries, same amount of deliveries, the same amount of vehicular traffic were there for hardware or shoes, we wouldn’t have a say in the matter whatsoever.

The court documents show that attorneys have dismissed comments made by residents, saying that they voiced “generalized concerns” about the impact that the store would have on the neighborhood, that “none of these community members provided and written or empirical evidence to support their theories” and “no expert testimony or reports were presented” by these residents.

While 7-Eleven did submit plans for modifying their proposal with various curb cuts and directional islands, as well as evaluations of noise and light pollution, none of these factored into the decision handed down by the village board.

In its decision, the board wrote that 7-Eleven had also “relied upon the Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual in order to project the expected volume of vehicular traffic” to and from the store, instead of an analysis of actual traffic at nearby 7-Eleven stores which operate on a 24-hour basis and which 7-Eleven “has chosen to withhold,” claiming the information at “proprietary and private to the company.”

The last time the village had an article 78 filed against it was in 2006 regarding a store on Emory Road and Jericho Turnpike, which is now an . The case went to federal court with the village winning on all levels.

The village also had a case against the , which was originally the site of a “Busy Bee” convenience store and gas station, but that denial was overturned since the property was already in use as a convenience store.