Convenience Store Pitched at Route 347 Sunoco

According to a Sunoco attorney present at a local civic meeting last week, a conversion at the Route 347 gas station's building from an auto service station to a full-time convenience store is in the works, and could be about a year and a half out.

Eugene DiNicola – who also represented Hess as they continue to work on their Route 112 project – said last Tuesday that the site plan has an upcoming planning board hearing scheduled for May 7 in Brookhaven Town Hall, though between special permits and zoning board of appeals meetings, the process won't be a quick one.

The gas station is properly zoned, DiNicola said, though needs a special permit in order to convert the repair shop to a convenience store, a regulation adopted at the town level in 2003.

The project would hold nine parking spaces on site, in addition to the eight at gas pumps. Two exits onto Norwood Avenue would be combined into one, with a "pork chop" in between, prohibiting left turns out of the station onto Norwood.

While members of the Port Jefferson-Terryville Civic Association were mostly glad to hear of the new addition, visual concerns were raised about the rear of the building, which faces an existing shopping mall. Members asked DiNicola to lobby Sunoco to wrap around its design in the front of the building, all the way through the back, to create a better visual atmosphere at the plaza. In addition, landscaping was suggested between the borders of the two parcels.

DiNicola said he would get back to the civic and estimated an 18-month process at the minimum from start to finish. Construction would take roughly two months once proper approvals are obtained.