The Westhampton Beach Village Board is expected to vote on a special exception application at its next meeting that, if approved, would allow a CVS Pharmacy to open in the old bowling alley building on Sunset Avenue.
Mayor Maria Moore said she believes the board is ready to vote on the application, submitted by Sunset West LLC of Manhattan, the owner of the gutted and vacant 20,000-square-foot building, at its meeting early next month.
“I think we’re ready to prepare a resolution,” Ms. Moore said during the board’s work session last Wednesday, February 17.
Trustees Charles Palmer, Brian Tymann and Ralph Urban agreed with Ms. Moore, stating that a resolution should be drafted. Trustee Rob Rubio was not at last week’s meeting.
Stephen Angel, the village attorney, said he would prepare the required resolution in time for the board to vote on it at its next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 3, at Village Hall. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
The decision to draft a resolution comes about one month after the board closed a public hearing on the application. The village held two public hearings, one on December 3 and another on January 20, to allow residents to voice their concerns about the application.
Most of those who addressed the board stated that they were against the measure, noting that two pharmacies already operate in the village and that the application, if approved, will circumvent specific zoning designed to prohibit larger chain stores from opening in Westhampton Beach. The special exemption permit is needed from the Village Board because the property, which falls within the village’s Main Street/Business 1 District, caps the space that can be occupied by a single business at 3,000 square feet. That zoning was approved several years earlier. Plans for the property date back nearly a decade.
Current plans on file with the village show the CVS Pharmacy occupying the center of the old bowling alley building, with three different shops on each side of it.
Amanda Bernocco on Feb 22, 2016