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Greenlawn businessman Fredrick Wightman hangs a sign announcing the
coming arrival oh 'The Wharf,' a resturant at the corner of Wall
Street and Gerald Street in Huntingoton

HUNTINGTON VILLAGE
No Parking? No Problem
Long-Islander Photo Michael R. Sisak

Zoning board approves restaurant application despite parking concerns

By Peter Sloggatt
petersloggatt@longislandernews.com

There’s no waterfront in Huntington village, but there will be a Wharf
after members of the town’s zoning board approved an application for a
restaurant by that name last week.

The Wharf will be located in the Knight Bros. building, most recently
occupied by Nemo’s sporting goods store on the corner of Gerard and
Wall streets. The brainchild of Greenlawn businessman Fredrick
Wightman, it will be something of a cross between a sit-down
restaurant and fast food eatery, where meals are cooked to order, but
customers will pick up their own meals and bring them to their tables.

The restaurant hopes to take advantage of the foot traffic generated
by the Shore 8 movie theater located across Gerard Street, but in
order to proceed, Wightman required relief from parking requirements
under the town code. Based on square footage, The Wharf is required to
provide parking for 143 cars. But like many businesses in the village
with no on-site parking, The Wharf will rely on the municipal lots
located nearby to provide parking for its patrons.

Attorney Michael McCarthy, representing The Wharf’s owner/developer,
told the zoning board at last week’s hearing that the restaurant would
not have an adverse effect on the village’s heavily used parking lots
or traffic because it would not be a destination, and instead would
draw patrons from people already in town to catch a movie, visit a
bookstore or a shop.

That multi-destination reasoning was successfully used by the movie
theater owners in 1996 to get past on-site parking requirements and
has since been used numerous times to allow businesses to open that
could not otherwise satisfy the town’s parking requirements. In fact,
real estate expert John Breslin testified on the applicant’s behalf
that since parking requirements were relaxed for Nemo’s to open, the
zoning board has similarly granted dozens of variances. He showed a
map of the downtown area covered with red dots – 42 in all – each
representing an instance in which the board has approved an
application that relied on the municipal lots to satisfy parking
requirements.

“There have been a substantial number of parking variances granted,”
Breslin said, adding, “It’s my opinion that the economic vitality of
the village has been maintained because of that.”

Still, there were several speakers at the hearing – including zoning
board chairman Christopher Modelewski – who raised the question, “when
do we know when enough is enough?”

Jack Palladino, owner of Christophers and Chesterfields and a member
of the Business Improvement District (BID) board, pointed out that
when the movie theater was granted a parking variance, the theater
paid $100,000 to the BID to fund improvements for parking as well as
other improvements. Palladino ticked off a long list of restaurants
that have opened in spaces that formerly housed retail establishments,
uses that are less demanding of parking, adding that he doesn’t want
to see a repeat of the situation some years ago when a heavy
concentration of bars competing for patrons resulted in a somewhat
raucous after-hours scene in the village.

John Esposito, a resident whose wife owns a business across the street
from the theater, raised concerns about the young people who come to
town for a movie, and wander the streets afterwards. “We can all see
the reality that the village is overwhelmed. There’s too many cars
screaming through, too many kids spilling onto the street from the
sidewalks,” he said. Esposito urged the board to reject the plan
saying, “Put a stake in the ground, reject the application and
preserve the character of the village.”

In the end, despite concerns over parking, traffic and young people,
the reasoning that the restaurant would draw its business from people
already in the village, and thus already occupying a parking space,
satisfied the board. Its members voted at the close of the meeting to
approve the project. It did, however, impose several conditions,
including a requirement that security personnel are provided for
weekend nights.

© 2004 Long Islander Newspapers, Inc.