Planners set Sept. 8 public hearing on Second Street development

By Russ Tarby

Contributing Writer

After examining Dunkin’ Donuts’ final site plan for a new drive-thru restaurant at 105-113 Second St., the Liverpool Village Planning Board scheduled a public hearing about the proposal for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Village Hall, 310 Sycamore St.

On Aug. 8, Dunkin’ Donuts architect Bob Abbott Jr. submitted a letter in response to an April 27 resolution of the Onondaga County Planning Board which questioned aspects of the proposed development. County Planning Chair Douglas Morris noted that the site plan shows a drive-thru lane capable of accommodating 11 queuing vehicles. “The average queue length for Dunkin’ Donuts is 13 vehicles,” Morris noted.

Abbott represents ESW Realty, LLC, Dunkin’ Donuts regional parent company, which has made a purchase offer on the Second Street properties owned by Seneca Savings Bank.

“Given the average queue length for Dunkin’ Donuts businesses,” Morris wrote, “the New York State Department of Transportation also notes the proposed drive-thru may cause backups on Second Street, and stacking may additional obstruct access for other vehicles into the site and to other parking spaces within the site.”

Responding on behalf of Dunkin’ Donuts, Abbott wrote on Aug. 5, “The site plan design offers a drive-thru queue length of one dozen (12) automobiles before a vehicle will reach Second Street… If in an unlikely condition that drive-thru backup occurs onto Second Street, there is a right lane dedicated to parking along the street plus two through lanes heading east on Second Street. The likelihood of traffic on Second Street being interfered with is remote.”

Village planning board member Michael LaMontagne seemed unconvinced. Among the concerns he expressed was a proposed three lanes of entrance to the site.    

“Additional traffic could become a problem,” LaMontagne said.

Planning Board Chair Joe Ostuni Jr. praised Abbott’s months-long work on the site plan and pointed out that, when it housed Seneca Savings Bank and Venesky Appliances, the site had three curb cuts. “But Dunkin Donuts proposes only one curb cut,” Ostuni said.

Village Attorney John Langey reminded the board — Ostuni, LaMontagne, John Eallonardo, Peter Osborne and Jim Rosier — that a State Environmental Quality Review must be completed prior to the Sept. 8 public hearing.

ESW Reality is owned by Portland, Maine, donut entrepreneur Ed Wolak.

The first Dunkin’ Donuts was opened in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts, by founder William Rosenberg. In 1967, when there were fewer than 250 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the entire country, Wolak began working for the company in New Hampshire.

Since 1998, the Wolak Group has expanded into Central New York. Today The Wolak Group and its affiliates own and operate more than 70 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Maine, New Hampshire and New York, as well as a 21,000-square-foot automated central production facility in Syracuse. That facility produces and delivers baked goods daily to its regional restaurants.