White Castle Wants To Demolish, Rebuild

The White Castle at the northeast corner of Jericho Turnpike and Townline Road in Commack  Photo/Google Maps

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

 The White Castle in Commack may soon be demolished and rebuilt with new features, including a revamped drive-thru.

White Castle wants to erect a new, 50-seat, 2,788 square-foot restaurant at the northeast corner of Jericho Turnpike and Townline Road.

It’s also planning a revamped, 10-car drive-thru that would replace the current drive-thru, which has its quirks, including a Vittleveyor that sends food from the restaurant, over a queued car and down to the driver’s side window.

The planned new restaurant “is going to be a much nicer, more modern, and have more parking and larger buffers,” said Huntington-based attorney Michael McCarthy, who is representing White Castle.

He added that his client recently purchased land owned by the state Department of Transportation that is adjacent to the current White Castle location, providing space needed for the construction.

Before it can move forward, Ohio-based White Castle must seek relief for both signage and parking from the Huntington Zoning Board of Appeals.

There are currently two parking options: one would provide 42 parking stalls; the other would supply 71. Both options are short of the 80 stalls required under town code.

The former option forgoes additional parking in favor of more landscape buffering. The latter option replaces the added landscape buffering with additional parking.

“We feel we have more parking then the restaurant would ever need,” McCarthy said. “If the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Planning Board agree, then they would rather see more of a landscape buffering area than installing paved parking stalls.”

The ZBA is set to hold a public hearing on the proposal during its meeting tonight, 6 p.m. at Huntington Town Hall.