CB 11 Approves Variances for Auto Service Stations, Expansion for Dental Office

Community Board 11 approved variances for two auto service stations and the expansion of a dental office during its monthly meeting on Monday.

The board voted 31-5 in favor of allowing a Gulf gas station on Union Turnpike to continue operating as a service station and approved a variance for Red’s Auto Service on Northern Boulevard in Douglaston.

Gulf’s application called for minor interior changes to the station as well as to permit automotive repairs on Sundays.

CB 11 had denied the previous owner of the station the ability to repair vehicles on the site, but the station continued to do so anyway.

Nora Martins, who represented the station, said the current owner wanted to make it legal to work on cars at the site. Mechanical work on the weekends would include oil changes and flat tires, but no engine work.

“It’s been acknowledged that there is a need for repair work and it’s clearly part of the business model of the operator,” said Dennis Novick, chairman of the board’s South Bayside Zoning Committee. “The biggest issue that has come with us involves the extension of hours on Sunday.”

CB 11 has asked that the station’s hours on the weekends should be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

But Martins said the station’s owner still wants weekend hours to be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“When we had the committee meeting, I was upset because this applicant had a variance and part of the condition was that they weren’t supposed to work on Sundays,” CB 11 member Steve Behar said. “They’ve thumbed their nose for years and remained open on Sunday. We told them they had to cut their hours a little bit and they’ve come back here and said they changed their mind. We need to send a message.”

CB 11 voted in favor of the application, but with the hours requested by the board.

The board also voted in favor of a variance for the operation of Red’s Auto Service even though Joseph Sollano, chairman of the Douglaston Zoning Committee, said that the station’s owner should clean up an area near the site that was covered in weeds.

“It’s a mess,” Sollano said. “It should have been cleaned up by now.”

CB 11 voted unanimously to approve the extension of Scott Danoff’s dental office on Little Neck Parkway.

Martins, who also represented the dental office, said the $189,000 upgrade would enlarge the existing office and update its equipment.

“We want family practitioners staying in the community,” CB 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece said.