From Selling Harleys To Storing Stuff

Florida-based Simply Self Storage wants to construct a new storage facility on the site of the former Lighthouse Harley-Davidson at 670 E. Jericho Turnpike in Huntington Station.

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

A national storage company has submitted plans to construct a two-story self-service storage facility at the site of a former Harley Davidson dealership in Huntington Station.

Plans received by the town planning department in February show that Florida-based Simply Self Storage wants to construct a new storage facility at 670 E. Jericho Turnpike in Huntington Station.

The 1.9-acre property formerly housed Lighthouse Harley-Davidson, but the two-story building on the property is currently vacant.

Simply Self Storage is looking to demolish the existing abandoned building and construct a new two-story building with a walkout basement in the rear.

The proposed building would have a 33,264-square-foot footprint, and the total building area would be 99,792 square-feet, according to town documents.

Current town code states that storage facilitates may only be one-story high.

Huntington-based attorney Michael McCarthy, who is representing Simply Self Storage, said at last weeks Planning Board meeting that the code was designed to prevent “barracks-style” storage facilities that have a “warehouse look.”

“This building will look and conform to anything that you see on the streetscape there on Jericho Turnpike,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said he felt the storage facility would be a “good repurposing” of the property. He said the new building will not appear much larger than the current one, but will be an “economic generator and a low trip generator.”

Town code requires 50 parking spaces for the proposed building, but the plans only provide for 30.

The planning board recommended at last week’s meeting that the ZBA require appropriate landscaping and architectural features along all sides of the building to “mitigate the look of a warehouse type building along Jericho Turnpike,” according to planning officials.

The application will have to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals for a special use permit to operate a self-storage facility in a C-6 zone, area relief, parking relief and a variance for the number of stories.