In May, Edwards Food Stores lost its bid to build their own 86,000 sq. ft. supermarket in Roslyn. As their offer was being rejected by the Roslyn Village Site Review Board, Chamber of Commerce President Frederic Carlton advised that Edwards might "make a show of good faith" to village merchants by building a parking lot on the same site they hoped to construct a supermarket.

Three months later, Ahold Real Estate, the Atlanta-based Dutch company which owns Edwards, is ready to take up Mr. Carlton's offer. Ahold, with the help of the chamber, has drawn up plans to build a 70-space parking lot on the Stop & Shop site, complete with a sidewalk and roadway from Old Northern Boulevard to the proposed lot.

"[It is] a milestone that we have gotten a property owner to create a parking lot for the use of the business district," said Mr. Carlton, adding that the proposed lot could be built at no expense to the taxpayer.

Last Friday, Mr. Carlton and representatives from Ahold filed for a building application with the village. In addition to having 70 spaces, the lot would have lighting and insurance. It is meant to be a temporary lot to be used by business district employees and customers while the current litigation over supermarket construction is being resolved.

In November, 1994, LCS and Stop & Shop received permission from the Roslyn Board of Trustees to begin some supermarket construction. However, an Article 78 lawsuit was immediately filed against the companies by various Roslyn residents in an attempt to overturn the earlier BOT decision. That lawsuit was ultimately successful, even though a counter-lawsuit was filed by LCS against the village.

Since then, Stop & Shop has been purchased by Edwards, bringing Ahold into the mix.

Ed Pabich, executive vice president for Ahold, noted that his company has both inherited the proposed site and the ongoing litigation against the village. Still, Mr. Pabich said Ahold is interested in being "part of the business community" and in the future, being an even "more involved member" of community life in Roslyn.

For his part, Mr. Carlton praised the proposed lot as a "gesture of good will." Even though the chamber president and Ahold have been on opposite sides of past litigation, both Mr. Carlton and Mr. Pabich were willing to work together on the project. Noting that the current legal action could remain a drawn-out process, both sides agreed that the property off Skillman Street should not lay dormant while the courts decide pending litigation.

"Litigants need to talk," Mr. Carlton said. "I could hold a grudge and say, 'they sued me,' meanwhile, downtown wouldn't get any parking."

As far as the building application is concerned, Mr. Carlton said the BOT could either recognize that the downtown needs parking "desperately" or allow the application to get bogged down with other items on the BOT's agenda.

Mr. Carlton said his greatest concern was that the business district would "die [while] waiting for business decrees to come out of the courts."

For chamber members, the main issue remains parking. "We need the parking," Mr. Carlton said, while listing a number of sites----including a spot on Glen Street near the Mobil station and land behind the Junior League---that would help alleviate the village's longtime parking problem.

Ahold is primarily a developer of supermarkets. Subsidiaries such as Edwards operate the stores. Ahold has developed numerous supermarkets along the East Coast. On Long Island, they have done construction in Miller Place, East Islip, and South Setauket.