Home Depot has filed an application with the Town of Oyster Bay to build a store at an unspecified location on Sunnyside Boulevard in Plainview. Many local residents are worried about how their quality of life would be effected by the proposed construction in their neighborhood.

Hundreds of concerned residents of Plainview and Old Bethpage are expected to attend a meeting sponsored by the Washington Avenue Civic Association on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at the Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School. The residents' main concerns focus on traffic congestion, late night loading of trucks and tractor-trailers, environmental pollution and the uncertain effect on property values.

"I think that Plainview has seen enough growth already," said Sandy Grinspan, Plainview resident. "We want to retain it as a suburban hamlet of local businesses and residents and that does not include a national chain right in our residential neighborhood."

Town residents did not sit by idly ten years ago when the Town of Oyster Bay attempted to build an incinerator in Old Bethpage. The Washington Avenue Civic Association organized the movement to stop the incinerator, the plan was scrapped and the landfill was closed. The civic association also stopped the county from developing the property known as the Shattuck Estate on Washington Avenue. The aquifer running under the estate provides water for the county and the land is now preserved.

"The community is worried about the effect of a Home Depot on our small businesses as well as the influx of cars and trucks on our residential streets," said Ginger Lieberman, president of the Washington Avenue Civic Association.

Residents question the need for another Home Depot when there are currently three within ten minutes driving distance of Plainview located in Jericho, Farmingdale and Huntington.

"We just don't need another Home Depot," said David B. Kaplan, a resident of Plainview. "It will bring more traffic, more pollution, more transients and more than likely, more big retailers leading to an ongoing downward spiral in the quality of life here in suburbia."

Posters are appearing in shop windows throughout the community and petitions are being circulated asking the Oyster Bay Town Board to deny Home Depot's application.

"The town has not even begun the review process," said Dolores Fredrich, a lawyer representing Home Depot. "We feel that the location, in an industrial area, is appropriate and we are hoping to work with the community to address their concerns."

Home Depot's application has to complete many other steps before the town board will see the application and hold a public hearing. According to a spokesperson for the town, the application has to be reviewed by the Town's Environmental Quality Review Board (TEQR), the town attorneys, the Department of Planning and Development and then TEQR has to look at it and decide if it needs an Environmental Impact Statement.

A panel comprised of Judy Jacobs, Presiding Officer of the Nassau County Legislature, Ginger Lieberman; and a representative from Home Depot will be at the Feb. 13 town meeting to respond to questions from the community.