Taco Bell may be proposed for site in Hartsdale

Representatives of a Taco Bell franchise holder have met with members of the Town of Greenburgh staff and Planning Board to discuss the possibility of building a Taco Bell restaurant and associated drive-thru on a 0.41-acre site at 57 Central Park Avenue North in Hartsdale, a bit north of the intersection of Central Park Avenue North and West Hartsdale Avenue, commonly known as the Four Corners.

Raghav and Sameer Patel through their Kai Restaurant Group operate several Taco Bell restaurants in the Hudson Valley area. They were represented by Attorney David Steinmetz of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz.

The site under consideration had been occupied by a Honey Baked Ham shop. There is a six-story apartment building on one side of the property and a Subway restaurant on the other side. The Hartsdale Pet Cemetery is to the rear. The existing building would be demolished and a new one-story, approximately 1,688-square-feet Taco Bell would be constructed. While 49 parking spaces would be required under zoning, a variance would be sought to allow the 32 parking spaces that would be proposed. There also would be space for up to eight cars to be in line at the drive-thru window.

“We know it’s a smaller site; it’s tight and it has some challenges,” Steinmetz said. “Taco Bell, as I have come to learn in working with the Patels now on several Taco Bell locations, is substantially a drive-thru location. Most of the patrons, not all, but a large number of patrons for Taco Bell do tend to use the drive-up window.”

Steinmetz said that a lot the focus of the preliminary design has been to make the site work for the drive-thru window and still have parking for employees and patrons who want to eat there. He described the drive-thru use at Taco Bell as being “somewhat intense.”

“The Patels own and operate several Taco Bells, so this is not somebody who would like to have a Taco Bell,” Steinmetz said. “They have empirical data from several other locations.”

Planning Board members led by Chairman Hugh Schwartz said that issues they’d examine in a formal application would include whether the number of cars waiting for order pickups could back up onto Central Park Avenue, whether the flow of cars into and out of parking spaces would be smooth and whether there would be noise or nighttime lighting that would affect residents of the neighboring apartment building. There also was concern about when during the day deliveries would be made and trash pickup would tale place. Also, the ease with which trucks could maneuver on the site. Another issue raised was whether cars exiting the site would be able to safely make a left turn onto Central Park Avenue because of frequently heavy traffic conditions or whether left turns coming out of the site should be prohibited.

Steinmetz did not say when a formal application and site plan might be submitted to the Town of Greenburgh but indicated that if the project moves forward the plans likely would take into account the comments and concerns that Greenburgh already has raised.