Islip Wants a 15-Car Line. Pollo Campero Wants a Waiver.

Pollo Campero of New York wants to build a drive-through restaurant on Fifth Avenue in Bay Shore, and to do it, the company is asking the Town of Islip to waive two of the rules the town wrote specifically to keep drive-through lines off its roads. The application is on the agenda for the town's change of zone hearing on Thursday, September 17, at Town Hall, 655 Main Street in Islip, in the session that starts at 5:30 p.m.

For anyone who operates a quick service restaurant, a coffee brand or a shopping center pad site in Islip, the outcome is worth more than one chicken restaurant. It shows how firmly the town intends to hold a queuing standard that carries fines and, in the worst case, the loss of the drive-through itself.

What the application asks for

According to the hearing agenda, the site is on the west side of Fifth Avenue, which is County Road 13, about 100 feet north of Anna Road. It takes in three parcels: 1832 and 1836 Fifth Avenue and a parcel listed as 0 Pine Aire Drive. Part of the land is zoned Residence B and part Business 1. Pollo Campero is asking the town to rezone all of it to Business 3, and for a Planning Board special permit to run a fast-food restaurant there.

The agenda also says the site plan needs modifications and two waivers: one from the minimum drive-through queue, and one to allow the queue lane to sit in the front yard.

The chain is not new to the area. Its own location list shows a dine-in and takeout restaurant already operating at 1665 Fifth Avenue in Bay Shore, along with stores in Central Islip, Amityville, Hempstead, Huntington and Lawrence. The agenda does not say whether the new site would add to the Bay Shore store or replace it.

The rule being tested

Islip added a dedicated fast-food article to its zoning code in May 2024 and amended its application requirements in April 2025. The town's stated reasons are practical ones: noise and headlights next to homes, cars idling, and queued vehicles conflicting with traffic on the street. The same section also credits drive-throughs with serving older residents and people with disabilities and with helping underused shopping centers, which is why the code regulates them rather than banning them.

The operating requirements are specific.

A drive-through must provide a queue of at least 15 cars, figured at 20 feet per car with one foot between them, which works out to more than 300 feet of lane. The Planning Board can raise or lower that number based on the applicant's traffic study. The queue lane cannot sit in a front yard, and neither can the service window. A bypass lane has to let the last five cars in line pull out. The lot must be at least 45,000 square feet and 100 feet wide, and the restaurant can cover no more than a quarter of it. Where the drive-through lane borders a home or a residential zone, a 35-foot planted buffer is required. The site has to be at a signalized intersection, on a one-way street, on a street with a dedicated left turn lane into the property, or on a highway service road.

The application itself has to include a traffic analysis by a transportation engineer covering peak hours, customers per hour and stacking, plus a traffic management plan saying what the operator will do when the line overflows. The code lists the kinds of measures it expects: a temporary second lane, private security directing cars away from the drive-through, and a designated curbside pickup spot.

Where the teeth are

The enforcement clause is the part an operator should read twice. If a line backs out of the property into the public road, or blocks cars from getting in or out, each instance is a violation with a minimum fine of $2,000. If five substantiated violations land within seven consecutive days after the traffic management plan is in effect, and the line has materially affected traffic, the Planning Board can hold a hearing to revoke the special permit and order the drive-through removed.

The code also lets the Planning Board waive its requirements, but only where it finds them unnecessary for public safety or the general welfare, or unsuited to the particular use. A request to shorten the line and move it into the front yard on a county road is exactly the kind of request that standard was written to judge.

A medical office for East Main Street

Earlier the same evening, in the 5 p.m. session, 332 East Main Street LLC is asking to rezone the southeast corner of East Main Street and Montgomery Avenue in Bay Shore, 300 to 332 East Main Street, from Business 2 and General Service D to Business 1. The applicant also wants to modify covenants and restrictions attached to an earlier zoning case so it can build a medical office building, with site plan changes. It is another sign of health care taking frontage on a downtown commercial street.

What it means for members

If you are planning any drive-through in the Town of Islip, budget the transportation engineer and the traffic management plan before you sign a lease, and walk the lot with a tape measure. A site that cannot hold roughly 300 feet of lane behind the building now needs a waiver, a public hearing and a board willing to grant it, and the code puts the obligation to keep the line on the property on the operator once the doors open.

Watch what happens to this waiver request. If the town grants a shorter queue in a front yard on Fifth Avenue, smaller pad sites across Islip become realistic drive-through locations. If it holds the line, landlords marketing sub-45,000 square foot parcels to food brands should adjust their pitch and their asking rents.

If your business is on Fifth Avenue or along East Main Street in Bay Shore and you have a view on traffic, access or the medical office conversion, Thursday is when it goes on the record. The hearing is also streamed online by the town.