GUILDERLAND — The planning board gave a tentative recommendation for a rezone of a parcel on Western Avenue at Route 146, across from Stewart’s, for a Cumberland Farms gas station and convenience store.

The rezone will require final approval from the town board.

Carrow Real Estate Services owns two vacant parcels of land along Western Avenue, and wants the 1.35-acre parcel at 2444 Western Ave., which is zoned for local business, to be zoned for general business, so Tri-Way Services can build there.

Zoning for local business allows for a convenience store, but not a filling station.

The proposal includes a 4,500-square-foot store with six pumps having two dispensers each.

The parcel has stood empty for the more than 10 years that Carrow Real Estate has owned it, despite the company reaching out to businesses, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, about potential tenancy, Charles Carrow said.

At a town board meeting in June, he said, “Nobody wants to extend down Western past the intersection of routes 20 and 155.”

Carrow encouraged the board to accept Cumberland Farms’ proposal, saying that the Stewart’s across Route 146 was zoned for general business, and asserting it would be as simple as extending that zoning a bit further east.

The town board had traffic concerns and continued its public hearing until after the planning board could weigh in on those concerns.

The main concern was that the driveway for entering and exiting the station would be too close to the intersection, and that problems could arise for people trying to make a left into the lot from Western Avenue.

The state’s Department of Transportation must approve the location of the driveway because Western Avenue and Route 146 are state-owned.

Regional Director Mark Kennedy wrote a letter to the planning board recommending that the driveway be located further east to avoid “negative traffic implications.”

However, the DOT, in an advisory capacity, said the proposal could potentially be approved “as is” under the condition that an evaluation be performed two years after the project is finished.

At that point, if the DOT found that any “negative traffic implications” had occurred, Tri-Way Services would be required to make changes, including eliminating left-turn entrances from Western Avenue.

“Again, this is an advisory opinion,” said Bryan Viggiani, a spokesperson for the DOT, in an email to The Enterprise. “Since a formal highway work permit has not been presented to us for proposal at this time, NYSDOT has neither approved nor denied the installation of a driveway at this location.”

The town of Guilderland asked for the DOT’s input on the potential traffic impacts by reviewing the traffic study, and, “We concluded that full-movement access at the proposed Cumberland Farms can function safely and efficiently,” said Viggiani.

The planning board wrote the two-year-evaluation condition into its positive recommendation, despite the fact that the president of Tri-Way services, Thomas Burke, said be believed the driveway is properly located.

Burke said he would continue discussions with the DOT.

The town board still holds the final approval for the project.