Diner Eyed For Gas Station

A Middletown Avenue mainstay for burgers and fries could next become a site for pumping gas and charging electric cars.

Local attorney Bernard Pellegrino pitched that diner-to-gas station conversion Tuesday night during the latest monthly meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), which took place online via Zoom and in person on the second floor of City Hall.

Pellegrino presented to the commissioners an application for a special exception and coastal site plan review to permit a gasoline station and convenience store at 420 Middletown Ave.

That’s the current and long-time home of the I‑91 diner, which is still open and is owned by Stavros Karadimos.

Mohsin Aldalali, who is under contract to purchase the property, hopes to redevelop the site into a gas station with four double-sided pumps, a convenience store, and charging stations for electric vehicles.

Pellegrino said that Aldalali has worked in this business for over three decades and already runs five other gas stations, including in New Haven at 801 Whalley Ave.

The zoning-relief application now heads to the City Plan Commission for review before returning to the BZA for a final vote. If the BZA approves the gas station proposal, it would then have to go back to the City Plan Commission for site plan review.

Pellegrino said that the site ​“was a gas station before it was a restaurant.” This redevelopment would return 420 Middletown Ave. to its past use.

The diner at 420 Middletown was also slated last year to be turned into a cannabis dispensary, before City Plan Commissioners shot down the proposal.

The property is located right next to the I‑91 highway; it’s on a state road, in a ​“mixed-use area” with single-family homes, multi-family homes, and other business. ​“The gas station will be a convenience for residents in the neighborhood” and for people traveling through and off the highway.

Pellegrino said the gas station conversion would get rid of roughly 3,800 square feet of paving at the site, and thereby would reduce the property’s amount of impervious surface.

What are the operating hours? BZA Chair Mildred Melendez asked.

It ​“would not be 24 hours,” Pellegrino promised. Permitted hours under the special exception would be 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., he said. ​“We’re not sure we’ll use all of these.”

The only member of the public to speak up for or against the project at the tail end of Tuesday’s nearly three-hour BZA meeting was Lamberton Street resident George Lindsay.

“I’m definitely for the gas station,” he said. ​“There’s no doubt about that.” He singled out for praise the gas station’s plan to have electric vehicle (EV) charges. ​“I’m all in favor of that. I wish them the best of luck.”