By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — Residents of East 86th Street have long awaited the coming of Fairway Market, set to open in six months. But they can do without the increased traffic they fear the store will bring.
To keep the three-floor grocery store at 240 East 86th Street between Second and Third avenues stocked on a daily basis, Fairway requested from the city, and received, extended loading zone hours from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m, seven days a week.
"We are very disturbed about that," said Michele Birnbaum, a Community Board member and a member of the East 86th Street Merchants and Residents Association. "That is completely out of the realm of anything in the area."
Kim Francis, who lives next door to the Fairway site and said she often heads to New Jersey to buy groceries, said the extended deliveries would make a "serious difference" for residents on the street.
"We have enough problems with the Second Avenue subway construction as it is," Francis said.
Fairway CEO Howard Glickerberg requested the extended loading zone hours not only for his new store, but also because it would have to share space with Second Avenue businesses that have lost curb space due to subway construction.
"I hope it's not waking me up in the middle of the night," said resident Joshua Miller, 29.
Although it approved Fairway's extended loading hours, the Department of Transportation has yet to determine the zone's size, said Monty Dean, a spokesman for the department.
Still, some neighbors were willing to put up with the extra truck time in order to have a new gourmet store nearby.
"It's such a busy street anyway," said Joy Hohentahaner who lives next to the store. "When you put it in the balance, it's worth it to get some of the prepared foods."
The new Fairway will save Eve Chigrinsky, who lives on East 85th Street between Second and First Avenues, a trip to the chain's Upper West Side location.
"It's a perfect situation," Chigrinsky said. "You take the good with the bad."
