Greenlawn's McDonald's Question Comes Down to a Seat Count

"None of them are on two major roadways."

On June 4, Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals chairman Gerard Asher was talking about the four McDonald's restaurants already operating in the town. Each one sits on a major roadway. The site proposed for Greenlawn, the northeast corner of Pulaski Road and Park Avenue, sits on two of them. The packed room applauded him even louder than it had a few minutes earlier.

That was four months ago. The former Citibank at 260 East Pulaski Road is still empty, as it has been since 2020. Since the night the hearing closed, the case has largely dropped out of view. Here is where it stands as of early October 2026, and why the answer rests on a narrow definition in the town code.

Fifteen seats carry the legal question

On the Town of Huntington's agenda, the case is ZBA#23704. The applicant is Eric Wagner, an area construction manager for McDonald's USA. The property owner is 260 East Pulaski LLC. The agenda describes the request as a special use permit, food shop definition relief, parking relief, parking setback relief and signage relief "in order to demolish vacant bank and construct a fast food restaurant."

The central item on that list is the food shop definition. The parcel's current zoning permits a food shop. Town officials told Newsday that a food shop has 15 or fewer seats and a restaurant has more than 15. The McDonald's plan calls for 32.

The ZBA is therefore not deciding whether fast food in general belongs in Greenlawn. It is deciding whether a building with more than twice the food shop seat limit can still be classified as one. Huntington Now reported that without that designation, McDonald's would have to seek a zoning change from the Huntington Town Board, which is a separate process with its own hearings.

The board's questions focused on the corner

The seat count is the legal hook. Most of the hearing, though, was about the intersection itself.

Pulaski Road is County Road 11 and Park Avenue is County Road 35. The corner is surrounded by uses that bring steady traffic. Huntington Now listed Fair Meadow Park, a landscaping business, a nursing home, a nearby gym, Northwell Health buildings and Family Service League among the neighbors. The old bank's drive-through took cars in from Pulaski Road and sent them out onto Park Avenue, so a drive-through lane on this lot is not new.

The crash figures discussed at the hearing came from the applicant's own traffic study. Board member Rich McGrath pointed out that the study counted 122 accidents at the Park-Pulaski intersection from 2020 through 2024. He also noted that 2020 and 2021 were years when traffic was unusually light because of the pandemic. Ethan Schukoske, who presented the traffic data for the applicant, said many of those crashes were rear-end collisions. He cited studies that link that pattern to red-light cameras.

McGrath then asked about the exit plan. Schukoske confirmed that the design would let drivers leaving the lot turn left, heading south on Park Avenue. "I truly mean this…You cannot possibly go out and make a left," McGrath said.

Suffolk County Legislator Rebecca Sanin used the same study in her testimony.

"According to the applicant's own traffic study, this intersection currently experiences, as was noted, a crash rate more than four times the statewide average. That fact alone should give this board pause."

She asked the board to require "compelling evidence" that a high-volume drive-through would not make existing conditions worse.

Mary Beth White, a retired nurse practitioner who lives near the site, started an online petition against the plan. Her main concern is Park Avenue as an emergency route to Huntington Hospital, about 2¼ miles north of the corner. The petition kept growing after the hearing. Patch reported 537 signatures and more than 175 comments on June 4. Newsday counted more than 650 signatures and 250 comments by mid-July. Before the hearing, more than 200 letters and emails opposing the project had reached Town Hall.

That level of attention changed the meeting itself. More than 40 people signed up to speak, and the board put off the rest of its agenda that night. Several other applications listed for June 4 were administratively adjourned to June 11 and June 25.

What happened after the hearing closed

The board did not vote on June 4. It gave McDonald's two weeks to answer its questions. According to coverage of the hearing, the board also kept open the option of commissioning its own traffic study. Newsday reported that the questions included a request to study traffic at the intersection across a wider range of times. The board also asked why other McDonald's locations in town had not been given a broader traffic analysis.

The answers came in on schedule. "They made the submissions, so now we're in the process of checking to see, did they actually respond to questions presented by board members," John Bennett, counsel to the ZBA, told Newsday in mid-July. A town spokeswoman, Christine Geed, said the board would not share details of the responses with the press until it had fully reviewed them and shared them with the relevant parties. Town Supervisor Ed Smyth had already said publicly that he was not "lovin' it" and could not think of "a worse location" for a drive-through.

That July report also included the rule that governs the timing. Once a hearing closes, the board no longer takes public comment. Town officials said it must vote within 62 days unless the board and the applicant agree to an extension. Counting 62 days from June 4 puts that date at August 5, 2026. Bennett said that once the review was finished, "ultimately going forward there will be a decision issued."

What the public agendas show through October 1

The ZBA posts its agendas and vote sheets on the town's Granicus archive, which lists meetings through October 1. ZBA#23704 does not appear on any of the post-hearing agendas reviewed for this update.

The October 1 sheet, for example, lists a Centerport second-story addition, a Huntington Station rebuild and a Huntington accessory structure matter. None of them involve Greenlawn. At Supervisor Smyth's September residents' Q&A, according to Huntington Matters' written account, the discussion covered taxes, medical benefits and development in Melville. That account does not mention a McDonald's update.

These records do not prove that nothing has happened. An extension agreed between the board and the applicant, a withdrawal, or a decision recorded somewhere other than these pages would not necessarily appear in this table. What the record does show is that no vote on ZBA#23704 has been listed on a public ZBA agenda in the eight post-hearing meetings reviewed here, and no local outlet has reported one since Newsday's July 14 update.

One more idea from the hearing has stayed in the background. A neighbor suggested that the town buy the property, take down the bank and make the corner a park, with the parking lot going to Family Service League, according to TBR Newsmedia. No reporting since then shows the town taking up that suggestion.

How to check the status yourself

The town has a direct way to ask about a pending application, so you do not have to wait for the next headline.

1. Email the Zoning Board of Appeals at [email protected]. The town asks that status requests include the application number or the property address.
2. Use ZBA#23704 and 260 East Pulaski Road, Greenlawn, in the subject line so the request reaches the right file.
3. Check the "Matters for Discussion" sheets on the town's Granicus page before each ZBA meeting. A vote on this application would appear there.
4. If the food shop relief is denied, look for the next step at the Town Board. Town officials have said a rezoning request there would be the route for a full restaurant on this parcel.

The building at Pulaski and Park was once advertised for possible medical or retail reuse. Whatever the ZBA decides about the 15-seat line will help determine what the next proposal for that corner looks like.

Questions like this one, about what can be built on the lot down the street and how long the town takes to decide, often come up when Greenlawn homeowners are thinking about their next move. If you would like a steady, local read on how a pending decision like ZBA#23704 could affect your street, Jamie Marcantonio is glad to talk it through with you. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.