Smithtown approves sign variances for its first Tim Hortons coffee shop, new Lidl store

Smithtown’s first Tim Hortons coffee shop and a planned Lidl supermarket won approvals from town land use officials this week.

The 2084 Jericho Tpke. Tim Hortons in Commack, a project of gas magnate Harry Singh’s Bolla Oil Corp. chain, got approval for three signs along with a dressing down from board chairman Edward Benz over the profusion of apparently illegal wind streamer signs already at the location.

"They wave all over the place," Benz said at a Board of Zoning Appeals hearing conducted virtually Tuesday night. "You have, like, seven of them — You have so many out there you can’t see the building," Benz said.

"I cannot disagree with you, sir," said Chris Tartaglia, the Farmingdale engineer representing Bolla. "It’s a lot."

The approved signs include a monument-style marker on the turnpike, a menu board and a directional marker for a drive-thru. Smithtown code prohibits "pinwheels, pennants, banners, balloons or other similar devices."

Tartaglia said his client was merely "trying to drum up some business" for the Canadian coffee shop brand, which Bolla began opening in its convenience stores in 2020. A Bolla executive told Newsday that year the company planned to open Tim Hortons shops in all of its convenience stores, which numbered 150 at the time. Most Bolla locations are on Long Island, though the chain has stores elsewhere in the tristate area. According to Tim Hortons' store locator, the location is the coffee chain's first in Smithtown. Bolla still has not opened a Tim Hortons proposed in 2020 for its 819 W. Jericho Tpke. location.

Tartaglia and Bolla did not respond to requests for comment. Tartaglia said at Tuesday’s hearing that the streamer signs would be removed, along with an ice chest and storage container.

Lidl, the German discount retailer moving into the former Stein Mart space in Commack’s Mayfair Shopping Center, got approvals for wall signs and a reduction in parking stalls to accommodate shopping cart corrals.

A spokesman for the chain, Will Harwood, told Newsday in 2021 that the Commack supermarket would open early this year. He said Lidl hoped to have 23 supermarkets on Long Island by 2023 and 50 by 2029.

Company representatives and Philip Butler, the Farrell Fritz lawyer who represented the chain at Tuesday’s hearing, did not respond to requests for comment.