Photo credit: Tiffany L. Clark | A 22-acre parcel is Bay Shore is being considered for a new Costco store. The Islip Town Board would have to change the zoning from industrial to business before the store could be built.

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s application to build a store in Hicksville is to be considered this morning by Town of Oyster Bay officials — nine years after the board first rejected the project on environmental grounds.

The store, proposed as 152,551 square feet of retail space and parking at 555 W. John St., was the subject of legal proceedings beginning in 2003 with a State Supreme Court ruling that the town improperly denied Costco’s permit request.

The legal actions culminated last fall with an appellate division of the court directing the town to complete an environmental-impact statement on the project.

The town board at its meeting today is slated to vote on whether to approve the final environmental findings and whether to grant Costco’s request for a special-use permit, town spokeswoman Phyllis Barry said.

Greg Yatzyshyn, a Hicksville resident who lives near the site and has been a vocal opponent of the project, said he expects Supervisor John Venditto and board members to again deny Costco’s application.

“I can’t see how anything’s changed” since 2003, “because the traffic is going to be the same or worse,” Yatzyshyn, 62, said Monday. “The issue is traffic, traffic, traffic, and they can’t minimize it. The more, the better for them.”

A Costco representative Monday said the Washington state-based company does not comment on store locations that have yet to receive permitting.

Tags: Hicksville , Costco , Town of Oyster Bay , vote

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