Mystery of the missing Chick-fil-A restaurant remains unsolved in West Babylon

Call it The Case of the Missing Chick-fil-A.

A proposed Chick-fil-A restaurant in West Babylon that was approved by Babylon Town more than three years ago but never opened has received an additional approval from the town — but an opening date remains a mystery.

The Babylon Town Planning Board first approved the proposal in April 2022 for the restaurant to be built at 805 Montauk Hwy., in the Great South Bay Shopping Center, but it was never constructed. Last month, the restaurant again came before the board, this time in the form of a modified, expanded site plan. That plan was unanimously approved.

The town planning department couldn't provide a reason for the delay in building the restaurant and referred the question to Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A representatives, in response to questions from Newsday, declined to offer any details about the delay or information on an opening.

“We work closely with our partners throughout the many steps involved in opening a new restaurant, and we collaborate to navigate changes in the process and timeline,” spokeswoman Kali Caldwell said in a statement.

The statement mentioned the 12 existing Long Island Chick-fil-A restaurants and how construction had begun on a Bohemia location, with “upcoming opportunities” for the Lake Ronkonkoma and Medford areas.

At a public hearing held by the planning board in February 2022, two months before the initial approval of the West Babylon site, Chick-fil-A attorney Greg Alvarez, of the Amato Group in Garden City, asked the board to approve a 4,947-square-foot, 114-seat building. It was to feature a drive-thru accommodating 38 vehicles, on the site of a former Payless shoe store within the shopping center parking lot.

Only two residents spoke at that hearing, both neighbors of the site. One, Tod Ossmann, who lives on adjacent Brookvale Avenue, said he was concerned with Chick-fil-A creating an exit onto his street and patrons turning left out of the parking lot and bringing increased traffic to his neighborhood.

A traffic engineer assured Ossmann that patrons would only be allowed to turn right, onto Brookvale toward Montauk Highway, but Ossmann expressed doubt that would work.

“There’s really no physical restraint from somebody improperly wanting to make the left. ... It’s troubling to have any additional outlet onto Brookvale Avenue at all,” he said.

Over the next three years, Alvarez requested six extensions of time from the board, the last one sent to the board in April, records show.

Town planning department officials, in a statement provided through town spokesman Ryan Bonner, said planning board approvals are good for six months, but applicants can request extensions, which are granted for six-month periods.

“Typically the Board will grant extensions for up to three years without much question,” the statement said. “Beyond that, there usually needs to be some type of extenuating circumstance or reasoning beyond the request.”

The planning department added that extensions are “oftentimes done as applicants work to obtain financing or obtain approvals from outside agencies” such as the state Department of Transportation.

When the restaurant again came before the board last month, Alvarez sought approval of a modified site plan. Such modifications do not require a public hearing, Bonner said.

The new plan calls for the restaurant's size to be increased to 5,214 square feet with a children’s play area added, and for the drive-thru queue to be increased to accommodate 52 vehicles.

Alvarez did not respond to requests for comment.

Bonner said the new approval restarts the clock, leaving the door open for more time extension requests.

Reached last week, Ossmann’s wife, Barbara, said she had been wondering if the restaurant was still planned, given the silence over the past three years. When told it would be bigger than originally pitched, she expressed alarm, noting a nearby school and Chick-fil-A’s popularity.

“If all the cars are going to now come out of the shopping center onto our street, that could be a really big problem,” she said.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.