Planning Board - Regular Meeting

It's getting colder, but that means we're getting closer to spring. [laughter] I'm basically an optimist in life. As bad as it is, that storm will blow up. All right. Okay. So, we do have a public hearing regarding a bar and restaurant. That is the only public hearing tonight. So, we will begin our meeting with the pledge of allegiance. Could you all rise, please? Congratulations under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Can we before before we take the role, I've been informed that there are a number of people here uh who thought there was going to be a public portion regarding the Bristol over in West Bablin. Uh there is not. We're just having one public hearing and it's related to a bar and restaurant. Um so I just wanted to uh to alert everybody to that. um it is not on our agenda and it's not scheduled to be on our agenda at least uh not at this time. So thank you all for coming and uh let us first take the role. Patrick Halvin present. Julianne Nolan

present. Gerald O'Neal present. Edward Win present. Juan Leon present. Dan Tushian Frank Santos. Greg Giola. Matt Espazito. Emily Mole. Rich Casey, do we have a quorum? Yes, you do. Okay, we do have a quorum.

All right. Um, let's get to the public hearing. But before we do that, I'm required to read this statement into the record. The planning board shall have the right to rely on any information that is presented by the applicant. If any such information is later found to be inaccurate or incorrect, the planning board may determine that any approvals, building permits or other actions previously granted in connection with the application are null and void. All right, our first public hearing

is job 2533 AF. Raising Canes Restaurant LLC proposes demolish existing Hulahans restaurant in order to construct a one-story 454 square foot Raising Canes counter service restaurant with two driveth through lanes, 72 indoor and 15 outdoor seats and associated site improvements. Okay, thank you very much. Who's here on behalf of the applicant? Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, council. Uh Bram Weber, Weber Law Group, 290 Broad Hollow Road, sweet 200E Melville for the applicant.

Okay. Um, have you had the opportunity to review the memo dated November 12th uh from the commissioner of planning, Denise Graziano, regarding this application? Yes. Are there any issues, any concerns, any aspect of this memo, particularly the conditions and the covenants and restrictions uh that you would like to bring to the board's attention? Uh the only one is number 19 under the coven under the covenants and restrictions which is the restriction on no outdoor speakers for

Hold on. Hold on a second. This says no outdoor speakers or paging systems except for those used in connection with the drive-thru uh order board and service. Correct. The uh the applicant is proposing uh 15 outdoor seats. So they'd like to have some music outdoors. Um but it being on Broad Hollow Road on in a commercial area um the music will be ina auditable off of the um outside of that seating area and we'd certainly accept a condition that that requires that. I mean the code would require that in any event but certainly we'd be happy to accept a condition that there'd be no music audible beyond the uh the property line

beyond the property. Okay. We'll review that as your and it would make the outdoor outdoor seating more pleasant considering it is on Broad Hollow Road. That's true. But they don't like to hear the tires hitting the uh the bumps in the road or the planes and the planes. Okay. Um please proceed.

Sure. So thank you very much Mr. Chairman again Bram Weber for the applicant. So um as was uh mentioned for the call of the hearing uh this application is very simple. We are replacing a Hoola Hands restaurant um which um which will be ceasing operations um and replacing it with a smaller building quick service raising canes restaurant um with uh with drive-thru service uh uh right on the um existing footprint but yet smaller than the existing Hulahans but right in that general area of the property. Um, generally speaking, again, major commercial area. Um, almost every other quick service type of restaurant is in this area. Um, this particular shopping center itself has Chipotle and Panera Bread, uh, and pizza. Um, and there's a Chick-fil-A not far down the road. Um, so this is really a a use that's inind um, and no different than the other uses that are around it. Um what's interesting and unique um about about raising canes um it's new it's coming new to Long Island but it's very very popular um throughout the country. I told my high school age son that I was doing a raising canes application tonight and he said that he and his friends will be very excited um for this restaurant to locate here. Um and generally

where does he go to school? He's a high school student. Oh, he's a high school student. He's in high school. So um so one of us is going to have to take him. But uh but yes, so so but it's an it's an exciting concept. Um again proving very popular um throughout the country. It's a great company. Um and as a matter of fact, just speak more about it. Generally speaking, as you know, I do most of the speaking at the hearings, but um we have uh someone with us tonight from Raising Canes um herself, Melissa Brochell. Uh she is the senior manager of property development. Um she came in from Philadelphia just to talk a little bit about the company um and give a little background on raising canes. thought it would be important for her to do that considering it's a new use and a new company to Long Island. Sure.

Hello. Welcome to the town of Babylon. Planning board. Could you please state your name and address for the record? Sure. Melissa Brochil, 6800 Bishop Road in Plano, Texas. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed. Oh, I'm reminded that you have to fill out a card. But there No, you don't have to do it right now. Uh but when you finish, give the card then please give it to Matt. We'll do. Okay. Thank you. Before you start, um do you ever watch Land Men? Did I ever watch Land Men? Yes. Land Man? Yes. It's actually filmed in Plano, I believe. I thought so. Uh is it accurate?

Uh so far, so from my knowledge of Plano, yes, but I only go down there every so often when I have to go to the office about the oil business out there. Anyway, go ahead, please.

Sure. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. My name is Melissa Brochil. I'm the senior property development manager for Raising Canes and I help to manage all of the new development uh in the Northeast. So, from Maryland, uh all the way up to Maine, New Jersey, all the way over to Ohio, and I just picked up Virginia and West Virginia as well. Um so, we are vastly growing and I'm very excited to be a part of this and be in front of your board this evening. Um, our great story starts back in the early 1990s when our founder and CEO Todd Graves uh was tasked to come up with a sustainable business plan for one of his college classes. He proposed to open a restaurant that served only chicken fingers and unfortunately he received the lowest grade in his class. Um, that only lit a fire in him to figure out a way to make his dream a reality. Um, so from 1994 to 1995, Todd worked as a boiler maker and a Sakai salmon fisherman up in Alaska to help raise the funds to build his first restaurant. Um, which we know as the mothership. Uh, and that is still open to this day and um, functioning very heavily in the uh, Baton Rouge, Louisiana market. Um that restaurant again is joined by 890 raising canes restaurants throughout the country and 100 plus of those were opened just last year. Um with this growth we also take pride in acknowledging that Raising Canes was named one of America's greatest workplaces for diversity in 2025 by Newsweek and was also ranked number 29 for top workplaces in the United States according to USA Today. Um that's our third year on the list and we are still the top ranked brand recognized. Our focus has always remained our one love which is our delicious chicken finger meals. Um we uh cook every meal to order and our top secret sauce is made fresh daily along with our fresh squeeze lemonade and our sweet tea. Um our refined menu allows for speed of service. Um that's about tw 2 minutes and 30 seconds from the time

you place your order until the time you pick up your food. Um, our menu consists of five items. Uh, fresh marinated battered chicken fingers, Texas buttered toast, coleslaw, crinkle cut fries, and our coalles sloths. Uh, co our cane sauce, I'm sorry. Um, we know what you're going to order when you pull into the drive-thru. We just don't know how many chicken fingers you want. Uh, with that being said, we know what our customers are going to order when they pull into the drive-thru. Um, so our typical hours of operation are roughly around 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. 7 days a week. Um, we serve our customers at restaurants using our hours of operation that fit our customers needs. So we do like to stay open for our third shifters uh people in hospitality, our police and EMS. Um, and that helps to uh also build uh the job growth due to our added crew members. Um, I'm certainly uh open to answering more questions, but thank you very much and uh I look forward to speaking with you more and hearing more from the board. Thank you.

Do any of the board members have any questions?

Questions about operations? Thank you, Sure, Mr. Weber. The project site is located near Republic report. Has the applicant received any letters or permits from the FAA? Um, I don't believe any are necessary. They're not in any flight path there, and there's no um height uh um uh issues with this particular one-story restaurant. It's um no higher than the existing restaurant that it's replacing. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, if I may, uh the applicant did receive a letter of no hazard from FAA. Thank you. Sorry, could you repeat that? Uh, the applicant did receive a letter of no hazard from the FAA.

Thank you. So, I have I have um Alex Hullman here from Bowlinger Engineering to discuss the site plan as well as Ethan Shakoski here who is here from um TPD traffic who can discuss the um very uh the parking variance that we need and any traffic um and access related questions. Yes, correct. Yes.

Please proceed. Please state your name and address for the record. Yes. Uh, Alex Hollowman, 275 Broad Hollow Road, Sweet 100, Melville, New York. Could you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do.

Good evening, members of the board. My name is Alex Hollowman, civil engineer from Bowler, here to speak on behalf of the applicant, Raising Canes. With the summary of our application presented, I would now like to dive into the major points of the project from the site engineering's perspective. Our application proposes a new one-story restaurant with drive-thru fed by two stacking lanes. Combine the two stacking lanes will allow for up to 21 cars to queue before impacting on-site circulation as presented in the file documents. The combined proposed GFA for the restaurant is 4,54 square ft with a main building section and an out outdoor seating section that combines to reach that number. Town code calculates the required and provided parking for our application in relation to the entire tax parcel and all its uses within including our proposed application raising canes restaurant. Per this calculation, town code requires a total of 397 parking spaces. 283 stalls are provided with this proposed condition, but an existing ZBA approval has previously been provided has been previously been approved for tax parcel here granting a variance of 328 parking stalls. Um Ethan will talk more about that later in the presentation. Directly adjacent to the proposed restaurant, there are 50 parking spaces um just south of the restaurant. Included in this are two accessible spaces and three mobile order pickup spots. A loading space is also proposed just north of the pro uh proposed area um as shown in the filed documents. Signs is proposed with our application including ground and building signs and these are proposed for the safe and efficient operation of the proposed restaurant. A geotechnical investigation has been completed for the site concluding suitable conditions for development and uh favorable subsurface materials including on-site storm water management

and ground uh favorable suit favorable subsurface materials for on-site storm water management uh with groundwater found at a depths of 25 ft below grade. The site is intended to have a new proposed domestic and fire water line, electric telecom, gas, and sanitary sewer connection with the code required grease trap to collect kitchen flow. The sanitary connection will be designed and permitted via the latest county standards, and these applications have already been made to the county to that effect. An on-site trash enclosure is proposed with adequate access for garbage pickup. And as previously stated, a loading space is proposed just north of the restaurant, which provides adequate spacing and access for the loading operations of the proposed restaurant. Town compliant landscaping is proposed, including a variety of planting such as shade trees, evergreen trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, and ground cover. Adequate on-site lighting is proposed that will provide visibility at low light times, but still meet town requirements. The propo the proposed building architecture has been coordinated with the proposed site design while also meeting the programming needs of raising canes. This concludes my presentation on the major points of the application from the engineering's perspective. Uh I would be happy to answer any questions that the board might have at this time.

Um Matt, could you go back to the original site plan picture please? So, just a comment, not really a question, but to me, I think a more favorable handicapped accessible parking would be the five spaces closer to the building rather than having them walk across the crosswalk.

Yes. So, the code uh generally stipulates the closest um position closest to the main entrance to the building. Um, looking at both spots, uh, we found that the location as is presently presented, the, uh, ADA spots would be best suited in its current location. The prior area takes it on a little bit more of a circuitous sidewalk path as opposed to more direct. Um, that's the reason for this proposed location. You don't have access in the back of the building.

That is a back of house programming. So, that's mainly for deliveries and storage. the main uh entrance if uh it's it's the large swing doors to the south. So uh plan page left is that Yeah. Yes. Um yes. So that's that's um utility area back of house programming. Um the main entrance is that uh vestable area. Correct. That's being circled.

Okay. Thank you. So, um I see that the parking the drive-thru is planned for a lot of vehicles. In recent history when similar chicken places have opened in the township,

uh there has been a significant amount of overflow needed for the first I'm going to say six to eight months when someone opens. So, how is that factor in given that they're so close to the curb cut where the drive-thru entrance is? and what's the plan for them to loop through because the drive-thru goes and circulates back through their actual parking area. So, my curiosity is has that even been put in part of the plan about.

Sure. So, um we've already discussed that internally with the team. Uh Kes is aware of a what they like to call a honeymoon period when a new store is opened. Uh they're very excited about all the patronage that they anticipate having. So, they plan for that. They uh have additional team members on staff to help uh circulate uh cars in the parking lot. They'll use cones to uh to allow cars to back uh within the queue so it's safely not entering into the main entrance to the site. Uh in particular, I would say that that main entrance where you can immediately go to the right up that would be coned off allowing for the queue to wrap around uh to the left and then back down through the site. This would be temporary measures but would be uh looked after specifically by the team members on site. And then my other question is that light uh post that's uh to the um is that going to be elevated and surrounded by bards or is that going to be on a concrete just because you have a bad driver one day and they're unloading a hazard to drivers if they Sure, we uh that can be looked at as well, but um it is intended to be protected uh and such, but we have to place our site lighting uh to provide proper lighting that uh a second look at that for adjustments could be looked at.

Loading area. Yes. So what time what time of day first of all are the are they loading unloading? Sure. So uh nonoperational hours uh so they can efficiently get the new supplies in and out of the store. Um so that they can also utilize that drive-thru exit way um we provided a loading path in these uh file documents. I'm sorry. Walkway the five walkway that you have between there and that is correct. Yes. for dollies and other loading. Something you want to pull up regarding that question.

So to the right of the loading dock, there's no curve there. You're going to be able to come in through the right side. That is correct. Correct. And then second question, how do you how do they get the orders to the cars that are on the outside queue?

Uh yes. So they they have the ability where the architecture shows it's not only a sliding window but they also have sliding doors so they can step out and supply. Um there are certain instances where just the inside uh plan inside lane is used for pickup. The second lane is only activated at certain times in which case they have team members outside. You might have seen this with other uh chicken base quicks service restaurants where they'll have uh pads at their hands and uh they'll operate in that way. So in order if and if in a situation where both lanes are being fully activated, they have additional team members as I said taking orders but then also uh allowing for access out the door to supply the food.

Uh that is correct. Um in times when there isn't as much patronage, then they can just go down to the one lane. That is correct. I'll go to Jul. Um can we go back back to the drawing please for the outdoor seating? Are there ballards around the outdoor seating?

So there's um there is a pathway there. Uh but there is um there is no ballards because it's protected by a full height curb. It's away from the major uh driving operations by that the vegetation. Um it's approximately I want to say 10 feet uh from all sides if you were to draw a line from the edge of the seating area to the edge of the drive paths. Um so given those parameters we felt ballers were not needed.

Um Matt, [clears throat] would you mind just zooming out a little bit? So my my question has to do with the driving pattern. Is is there any reason why you would prefer this pattern as to as opposed to um talking about the parking lot like one way all going counterclockwise very similar to the um the drive-thru. The the reason why I say this is because another tenant to the south which I'm very familiar with has the exact same pattern here. And it's very difficult when you pull in, you have cars pulling out, another car pulling out from the bottom, traffic going left and right. And I just wondered if it if it would be is there a reason why it doesn't all just go in a circular pattern to to come in and out.

Sure. So, uh, this represents an iteration that has has gone through, uh, several iterations and designs. um in which case we fought uh we we found that this was the best combination as suitable for both the layout and for Keynes's use. Um we have 72 sites inside the restaurant. Um 15 uh 72 seats inside the restaurant, 15 seats in the outdoor seating. Um given that we wanted to provide maximum amount of parking uh accessible to the restaurant uh allowing for also um the overflow queue and general circulation. Uh we worked also closely with Ethan's team who's our traffic subconsultant and uh this was reviewed by the third party as well. Um given all those factors we felt that this is the this is the best our best foot forward for programming um in regards to this.

So I mean so is there a reason why you prefer traffic going against each other as opposed to one way? Well, yes. It it it provides the the layout provides the most parking and best circulation combination because we we tried other iterations, maybe one that you're speaking of specifically, and it didn't provide as much parking. It didn't provide the uh advantation for the circulation that we were looking for. Yeah, sure. You got to fill out a form. No, no, I filled it out. I filled it out. Okay. You did. Okay. Please state your name.

Uh Ethan Shakoski. I'm with TPD Engineering with the traffic engineers for the project. Uh we're located, just for the record, at 275 Broad Hollow Road in Melville, New York.

I do. Um I I just Alex answered that pretty well. The one thing I wanted to add, and it was mentioned earlier about that honeymoon period, is having the two-way drive aisles provides for a lot more flexibility for that operations team to to manage that longer queue. Um, just in case it goes beyond the the queuing available on site. So, if they're able to close off the the two lanes as you enter, having the the the two-way drive aisles allows for more flexibility there. So the traffic guy, what were the other basis uh subject matter places within the area that you used to calculate the traffic for this flow compared to since this is the first one to Long Island? How did you figure that out?

Um sure. So we did look at it trip generation uh for fast food restaurants as is typical uh institute of transportation engineers. Uh but we also had some research data for um some sites in New Jersey. Uh they do have many uh sites operating in New Jersey now um that have been there for for a good amount of time and are past their honeymoon stages. Um uh specifically we looked at three sites in Marlton, Burlington, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Uh we did find at those sites a maximum drive-through queue of of 15 vehicles in the queue. Uh whereas we have 21 here. Um so you know using that data as well as evaluating it data we um you know kind of just jumping right into questions and not my testimony but we we did evaluate the the additional traffic uh that would be generated compared to the existing Hulahan site. uh we didn't find any uh significant impact to the adjacent signalized intersections and we did find that there was sufficient parking on site to accommodate the demand.

Any other questions?

No, I was tell yes. So Ethan Sir, please state your name and address for the record. My name is Robert Cohen. I live at 775 Washington Street in Baldwin Harour. Proceed to tell the truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth. Absolutely. Okay.

Well, the only reason I'm here is I just wanted to say what a wonderful place. of hands is to eat. We've been eating there, my wife and I, for 18 years now. They've got a very diversified menu. Their food is excellent. Their service is excellent. And they're a great asset to the community serving all of the people that visit here from all over Long Island and for they might come from out of state as well. I mean, I drive 40 minutes there and 40 minutes back from Baldwin to eat there because their food is so good. I hate to see them, you know, being forced out of business because they're really a very good restaurant.

Yeah, I like them as well. Uh but of course that's not our decision. Yeah, from what I understand now, from hearing this, it's really rather a matter of whether or not this other company is suitable for being placed in that area. But u I hate to say knocked out. um the decision that whatever Hulahan's decided whatever they're going to do about their site there that's their decision. The town is not involved in any of that. Okay.

You're right. Our responsibility is to make sure that what happens to be replacing Hulahans that that uh it will work for that site. Okay. Thank you very much. coming out by the way. All right. What's going on with our jets? [laughter] Next year. Next year. We're warming up again. All I can say you must have been really cold though. You're still in morning. [clears throat] I offered to play for them, but you know, they weren't interested.

All right. Well, you know, I hate to say this, but there really now is only one New York team, and that's the team up in the snow country, Buffalo. So, at least somebody in the in the areas New York is winning. All right, that said, can William Dra come up? Where's William? William, come on up. State your name. William Dan, Masipa Park. Uh, the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I do. Please.

Uh, two things. First, with their traffic pattern and everything. I don't know how much they looked at this place. Some days that place is a disaster because you got Walmart, you have Bank America, and then you have the rush hour of people eating and stuff. And there are days when I go there two to three times a week and when when you're trying to get in the lot sometimes I'm just waiting for cars to move to get out of the way and that's their place is going to bring a lot more traffic. Number two, I don't know who picked that spot for them, but there are three chicken only places from Hulahans to a mile north and that would be Buffalo Wild Wings. Right across the street from this location is Chicken Tenders with a drive-thru. And then you have Chick-fil-A with the drive-thru. Now you go south about a mile. You have four chicken places with four drivethrus. You have Kentucky Fried Chicken. You have Pouyo Competa that just opened up. You have Popeye's and Wings Stop. And they all have drive-thrus. So I don't know a chicken another chicken place. It looks nice on paper and everything like that. How many I mean and they only sell chicken. So how much chicken can you eat? I think we got to get the back to open the chicken farm close. But anyway I the traffic area the traffic there itself is not good.

Right. But you raised a good question. How much chicken seven chicken places within you know north and south of them with dry six of them have dry fruits. Okay. Good. All right. We have another speaker. No, Bram. Okay, Bram, is there anything else you would like to add to the record? Is there anyone else that would like to address the board that hasn't signed? Okay, Mr. Weber, please.

Yeah, just just um just two things. One, there was a market study done for this location. Extensive market study as to why this location um is uh is well uh situated for this particular use. And one of them has to be that it's a functioning shopping center with the Walmart. Walmart drives a lot of traffic to the site. They do anticipate a lot of their customers will be already on site at Walmart. Um, and I just want to say one other thing about the the honeymoon period and the concern about traffic. Um, we all know what happened with the Sonic in Babylon when that opened. I had the unfortunate um, task of doing the second Sonic which was after that one. Um, this will be a little bit of a different situation because there are three raising canes that are currently scheduled to open roughly around the same time. In that situation, we had Sonic and it was only Sonic. Here, there's a a raising canes proposed for east of here as well as west of here. So, there'll be a dispersion of traffic, a dispersion of interest um at roughly around that 2026 2027 time um so that it won't be focused on just one location. So, I think that's a distinction um from an experience that we've all you know recently seen. That's it.

Any other questions? When is this one scheduled to open? assuming everything goes as planned. So, we have we have a planning board for site plan and the uh special permit for the bar restaurant. We have to go to um the zoning board of appeals appeals, excuse me, for the small increase in the parking variance. Um so, we'd be looking at a 2027 open So, you're tearing everything down starting over. Correct. Correct. Yes. I knew that was implied. Yes. Okay. Can I have a to what he just said? I'm sorry. Um, we usually don't allow that, but since you're here, go ahead.

Okay. The traffic I'm talking about is not new traffic for a new restaurant. Huly Hands has been there for years. Bank America's been there for years and Walmart's been there for years. And to say that Walmart's going to help them bring a lot of food there. Right. Right in the ne right across the street from there, not even across 110, you have a burger village, you have Chipotle, you have a a pizza place, you have Panera, you have Hoolahanss, and then across the street you have a whole string of restaurants. So to say that, you know, that's going to make a big difference. I don't think so. But again, the traffic I'm talking about is what exists today. Nothing new.

Thank you very much. Thank you. to close the public hearing. Motion by Dan. Second favored decision has also been reserved in order for us to review the feedback we've received this evening and any open site plan issues. It will remain open for written comments. To follow up on the status of the application or to submit additional written comments, uh you can contact the uh planning department a number of different ways. One is in person. Planning is located on the west wing of town hall. Application documents plans are available for inspection between the hours of 9:00 am and 4 pm or by phone 631-9573103 or by email planning comments at town of Babylon.gov. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh that close our public portion.