Vacant Harvest Diner in Westbury now resembles a junkyard, residents say

In the parking lot of the former Harvest Diner on Old Country Road, a weathered orange traffic cone sits atop a pile of debris on the hood of an old maroon car. The cone is bent at a 90-degree angle, as if collapsing in on itself. 

Such is the state of the former Westbury institution, which "for many people," North Hempstead Town Councilman Robert Troiano said during Tuesday's board meeting, "was their kitchen away from home" — until it was demolished following a fire in 2019.

In recent years, under new ownership, the property has fallen into a state of disrepair, becoming more of a junkyard with overgrown weeds than a beloved neighborhood establishment known for its pancakes and grits. 

The board voted 4-0 after a public hearing on Tuesday to authorize the town's Department of Highways to clean up the property, which Troiano said in an interview could begin in a couple of weeks.

"Despite the town's best efforts to ensure that the owner maintained the property in a neighborly way, that has come to no avail, which leads us to this point," Troiano said during the meeting.

The owner of the property, 841 Old Country Realty LLC, leases the property to a tenant, Troiano said in an interview. The tenant subleases it to several subtenants, who stuff the site of the former diner and the parking lot with black garbage bags, piles of discarded wood and bricks, vans, trucks and more, according to Troiano and residents. Rodents abound at the site, residents said during Tuesday's public hearing. 

Representatives for 841 Old County Road LLC could not be reached for comment. 

The property owner violated the portion of town code regulating property maintenance, according to the resolution. In July, the town issued an estimated 62 notices of violations to commercial properties on Prospect Avenue in New Cassel and Westbury Avenue in Carle Place, according to town spokesman Kevin Higgins.

Troiano had alerted the town that stores and offices had allowed for weeds to grow wildly in the rights of way in front of their buildings. Town code requires the "cutting of all weeds except trees, bushes and shrubs" to less than 4 inches on public rights of way.

Joe Gargiulo, 67, has lived in Westbury for nearly four decades. The Harvest Diner was the "greatest place," he said in an interview. But now, he said, the property has turned into a "nightmare."

"It's a disaster for the area, because houses go for one to two million dollars, people are willing to pay all those taxes, and then they come out to Old Country Road and see this disaster," Gargiulo said. 

Troiano said in an interview the town will now decide if it will use its own employees to conduct the cleanup or hire a private company. It will then charge the property owner the cost of the cleanup. 

For the residents, it's a long time coming. 

Anthony Page, of Westbury, said during the public hearing he lives across the street from the old diner's parking lot. Every morning at 6:30 a.m., he said, truck drivers who park their vehicles on the property rev their engines. 

"There's noise, there's fumes from the trucks. As they're pulling out, I have to close my windows. I cannot get ventilation through," Page said. "This is a disaster."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.