Westbury Taco Bell Now Closing at 10 PM Temporarily

Westbury’s long-running battle over the Old Country Road Taco Bell reached something of a pause Thursday night, when the village Board of Trustees confirmed the fast food restaurant will now close at 10 p.m. instead of its previous 2 a.m. shutoff time, at least until the chain can get its paperwork in order.

The March 5 hearing was a quieter affair than the previous two rounds, which drew waves of resident complaints about noise, garbage and late-night chaos in the parking lot. This time, a single resident, Toni Smiles, stepped up to push back on Taco Bell’s claims before leaving, and the room appeared visibly relieved to move through the item without another prolonged fight.

The reason for the earlier closing time comes down to a basic compliance failure. Taco Bell’s special use permit has expired, and according to Mayor Peter Cavallaro, the restaurant never applied to renew it and largely ignored the conditions attached to the original permit.

“It’s incumbent upon your client to provide the necessary documentation to renew the special use permit, but your client never did,” Cavallaro said. “And they basically ignored every condition of the permit, which led to residents’ complaints.”

Cavallaro also acknowledged the village bears some responsibility. The board, he said, “dropped the ball” by failing to notice the restaurant had not sought renewal until complaints started arriving.

Taco Bell’s attorney, Micheal Zapson, framed the 10 p.m. closure as a voluntary concession and asked the board to adjourn the hearing to April so his client can complete documentation on improvements addressing the noise, garbage and parking lot concerns. But the mayor made clear the framing matters less than the facts.

“While the board appreciated Taco Bell agreeing to close at 10 p.m., the restaurant doesn’t really have a choice in the matter at present as its special use permit has expired,” Cavallaro said.

Zapson acknowledged the earlier hours come with real costs. “These hours will not be sustainable as we’ll have to lay people off and cut working hours,” he said. He also pushed back on the underlying complaints, telling the board that Taco Bell has been patrolling its parking lot and reviewing camera footage. “So far we feel that the complaints are unsubstantiated,” he said.

That characterization did not sit well with Smiles, the one resident who spoke during the hearing. She directly rebutted Zapson’s claims before departing.

The Taco Bell situation has become a recurring headache for Westbury in recent months, consuming significant time at board meetings while neighbors expressed frustration over what they described as a noisy, poorly managed late-night scene spilling out of the restaurant’s lot. The earlier closing hour reduces the window for those problems considerably, at least for now.

What happens next depends on whether Taco Bell can satisfy the board’s requirements and submit the necessary documentation before the April meeting. The restaurant needs a renewed special use permit to operate under its previous extended hours, and earning that renewal means demonstrating it can actually meet the conditions attached to it.

The village’s acknowledgment that its own oversight lapsed is worth keeping in mind as this process moves forward. Permit conditions only work when someone is watching to enforce them. Residents brought these problems to the board’s attention after years of the situation being allowed to drift. That kind of community pressure is exactly how quality-of-life issues get addressed when the official systems fall short.

Mayor Cavallaro closed the meeting on an optimistic note, pointing to planned upgrades for the village’s community center and a park funded through state aid. “We’re looking forward to a great year and getting a lot of things accomplished in spring and summer,” he said.

Whether Taco Bell is part of that improved picture depends on whether the chain treats this as a genuine wake-up call or simply runs out the clock until it can return to 2 a.m. closings. Westbury residents have already made clear they are watching.