Pathmark Plans Have Neighbors In Panic

A glossy flyer sent out last week to support a new Pathmark in Fresh Meadows has resurrected residents fears that a giant "box" store may soon descend on the community.
Although nothing has been proposed officially, the flyer confirmed rumors for some residents that Pathmark is moving forward with plans to build a 55,000 square foot store across the street from P.S. 36 on 69th Avenue and 195th Lane.
Pathmark spokesman Rich Savner explained the flyer campaign as an effort to gauge the communitys opinion of the proposal. The flyers ask residents to notify elected officials if they support the project, and according to Savner, "In the responses weve received, weve gotten overwhelming support."
Robert Harris, president of the West Cunningham Park Civic Association, is one of the dissenters. He has been organizing Fresh Meadows residents to protest Pathmark since he first heard of the plan nearly eight months ago.
"We dont need the trucks and the traffic," said Harris, who expressed concern that delivery trucks and customer vehicles would pose a hazard to schoolchildren at P.S. 36. He also argued that the store would disturb a mostly residential neighborhood that is protected as a special preservation district.
The neighborhood became a preserved district in the 1970s to protect trees and historic architecture. For Pathmark to succeed in building a store on the site, it would have to receive a variance from the city after going through a series of public hearings. According to Tami Hirsch, president of the Utopia Estates Civic Association, only small changes in architecture are allowable under the rules of the preserved district.
"This is major, and major cant be done," she said of Pathmarks plans.
Savner argues that the store would fill a need for a community with no large grocery store nearby. "We offer something the community doesnt have right now, which is state-of-the-art, one-stop shopping."
Both Hirsch and Harris acknowledged that a local grocery store is needed since the closing of Key Foods on 188th Street and 73rd Avenue, but a Pathmark is too much, they say.
"Profits stay in [the community] with the small stores, and go out with the big ones," said Harris, who is worried a big store will shove out small businesses already serving the area. Harris believes small businesses rather than a large, outside corporation can effectively fill the local grocery void. In the meantime, civic organizations have gathered phone numbers of grocery delivery services to help local seniors unable to travel long distances to shop.
Harris and Hirsch, who are part of a coalition of eight civic groups that formed three months ago to monitor Pathmarks plans, say they will mobilize hundreds of residents in protest if Pathmark presents a formal proposal.
"We are all of one mind," said Hirsch.
sarah@queenscourier.com