CB 11 Holds Public Hearing on Plans for Former Scobee Diner Site

Community Board 11 voted to approve a variance for parking at the former Scobee Diner site in Little Neck that is being transformed into a retail and community facility.

Plans for the Northern Boulevard site, which has been vacant since the diner closed in November 2010, include a bank on its first floor and a dentist’s office on the second floor.

But the site is split up between three different zoning districts. Previously, the Scobee Diner’s owner had shared its parking lot with the site’s other owners.

CB 11 voted 24-18 in favor of the variance, which would allow accessory parking in the lot's residential section. But a number of board members and community leaders took issue with plans for the site, which includes 17 parking spaces for the new facility.

“We’re sad the Scobee Diner is gone,” said Walter Mugdan, president of the Westmoreland Association. “But we’re not opposed to the redevelopment of the site. We’re opposed to the particular plan that is proposed here.”

Mugdan said he was concerned that plans for the locale called for a drive through for the bank’s ATMs, resulting in an ingress from Little Neck Parkway and an exit onto Northern Boulevard.

“There would be two lanes of ingress and two of egress and the egress would be very narrow,” he said. “We are concerned about the traffic safety issues related to the site. And this major intersection should be the center of a commercial district. But it will be a dead intersection with two banks, a daycare center and – to make the metaphor complete – a funeral home.”

But Alan Palzer, co-chairman of CB 11’s Little Neck zoning committee, said while he had concerns about safety at the site, the property’s owner had agreed to ensure that the site’s ATMs would be gated off on the weekend.

“This has been a parking lot for 50 or 60 years,” he said. “In our view, it should be allowed.”

Representatives for the site’s developer said the Scobee’s parking lot had a curb cut close to the intersection, but parking at the site would now be moved 100 feet away from it.