Controversial Riverside 7-Eleven proposal still under review

A proposal to build a 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station on the Riverside traffic circle is still under review by the Southampton Town Planning Department, more than two years after it was first proposed.

The applicant, a group called 9 and 11 Flanders LLC, is seeking to build a six-pump gas station along with a 3,024-square-foot 7-Eleven at the southwest corner of the traffic circle. An abandoned gas station has occupied the site for many years.

The planning board is the “lead agent” in the review of the project, according to Kathryn Garvin, the attorney for the town Zoning Board of Appeals. Review of the proposal has been adjourned several times, mainly due to an ongoing environmental impact review.

Ms. Garvin said the application is scheduled to be back on the ZBA agenda at the April 6 meeting but will likely be adjourned again as the town is still conducting its environmental analysis.

“I think they are trying to tweak it so they can mitigate any environmental impacts,” Ms. Garvin said.

The 9 and 11 Flanders LLC application was met mostly with opposition from residents at public hearings in 2022.

Much of the push back came from members of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association, which sent the town more than 100 letters in opposition to the application.

FRNCA’s leader at the time, Vince Taldone, who spearheaded the effort to block the development, has since moved to New York City.

Brad Bender, the group’s current president, said he will step down when his term is up in April.

“I give up,” he said in an interview, but noted that there have been so many letters sent to the town on this application that “they already know where we stand on this.”

Mr. Bender said a 7-Eleven and gas station “are not what was envisioned by the Riverside Revitalization Action Plan for the area.”

That plan, adopted by the Southampton Town Board in July 2015, called for ground-level shops with apartments or offices on the upper floor. The plan took about two years to complete and sought input from residents.

“We already have two convenience centers and two gas stations at the circle,” Mr. Bender said.

Keith Brown, the attorney for the applicant, did not return calls seeking comment.

But at a ZBA hearing in January of 2022, Mr. Brown said that the proposal will remove an eyesore from the property, namely the vacant Getty gas station.

One of the questions before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals is whether a convenience store is a “customary accessory use” for a gas station.

Mr. Brown said that the ZBA has in the past granted several approvals in which a convenience store was deemed to be customary to a gas station, including the two other gas stations with convenience stores currently at the traffic circle.

Southampton Town Attorney James Burke said a gas station is a permitted use on the Riverside traffic circle, but a 7-Eleven convenience store is not. He said 7-Eleven is usually considered a primary use.