Public Hearing for Proposed Route 347 Gas Station

Plans for a newly proposed gas station on Route 347 will be presented to the public for the first time on Wednesday night. 

Smithtown Planning Board will host a public hearing on plans to build a gas station and convenience store on the northwest corner of the Route 347 and Route 111 intersection in Smithtown 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Eugene Cannataro Senior Citizen Center. 

Bolla Operating, a Melville-based group, has requested a change of zone from R-10 residential to neighborhood business on 0.48 acres along the northwest corner of Route. 347 and Route 111. Bolla is looking to demolish the abandoned auto repair garage and a two-story home.

According to plans, Bolla is planning to build a 10-pump gas station with room to fuel up to 16 vehicles and a 1,200-square-foot convenience store with small offices and a storage area. This $1.5 million project will require the new business to install two 15,000 gallon underground storage tanks to hold gasoline and diesel fuel. 

A traffic study conducted for the project by Stonefield Engineering and Design, dated Dec. 24, 2012, concludes that "the proposed development would not have a signficant impact on the traffic operations of the adjacent roadways." It estimated the new gasoline station would generate less than 1.5 percent of the overall traffic on Route 347 and Route 111. 

New York State Department of Transportation has recently widened the Route 347 and Route 111 intersection as part of its Route 347 greenway project. Route 347 has had an additional lane added in each direction, expanding to three-lanes each way. Route 111/Wheeler Road had the addition of a turning lane on the southbound side, with it temporarily continued on the opposite side of the intersection before two lanes merge back into one.