Howell planners approve shopping center addition
BY LARRY HLAVENKA JR.
Staff Writer

HOWELL — A long-considered extension to the Quail Creek shopping center in the Ramtown section of the township has been approved by the Planning Board.

The panel voted 7-2 in favor of the approximate 7,700-square-foot addition to the center for a bank and additional retail space.

Board members Paul Schneider, Marlene West, James Burgess, Paul Sayah, Mark Corzine, Tom Frese and Marc Leber voted in favor of the project.

Board members Russell Bohlin and Curtis Vislocky voted against the application at the panel’s Dec. 14 meeting.

The Quail Creek shopping center is between Newtons Corner and Ramtown-Greenville roads.

The applicant, Parker Partners LP, was granted preliminary and final site plan approval for the addition, along with a minor subdivision to condense lots. A complete woodlands management plan will need to be approved by the board at a later date.

Representatives of Parker Partners initially came before the board in May to present testimony on the project. At that time the extension was slated to be more than 11,000 square feet and include a restaurant and bar. After the board told the applicant to revise the plan due to various land use issues and objections to the bar component, Parker Partners dropped the restaurant from the proposal.

Instead, restaurant proprietor Dennis Dixon purchased existing space in the Quail Creek shopping center to house a restaurant he wanted to call the Hungry Quail.

The restaurant eventually sparked debate in front of the Township Council when Dixon tried to secure a liquor license transfer for the establishment.

The council denied the liquor license transfer in October, killing the Hungry Quail.

With Parker Partners free of the restaurant, attorney Dino Spadaccini presented the board with an application that did not request any variances, a point he stressed throughout his remarks.

As part of the plan, the shopping center extension will include access from a new driveway directly across from Virginia Drive and additional access from the existing shopping center parking lot.

Project engineer Tom Pugsley said 51 parking spaces were provided, exceeding the requirement of 45 parking spaces. Additional parking spaces from the current shopping center will be used as well, pushing the total number of parking spaces past 70.

The applicant agreed to comply with township professionals’ requests to change perceived traffic circulation issues, to rework areas of the façade to conform with Howell’s community design standards and to move employee parking spaces to the rear of the facility.

However, the applicant did not submit to the New Jersey Department of Envi-ronmental Protection (DEP) for a letter of interpretation (LOI) regarding wetlands and buffer requirements on the site.

Pugsley said he believed that was an unnecessary step due to his own surveys of the property.

Spadaccini said seeking an LOI could stretch out the process indefinitely and stall the approval, which would cause hardship to the building’s tenants.

Although Planning Board engineer Ernie Peters said, “From my perspective, we are satisfied that the buffers do not exist on site,” Vislocky took a hard line.

“There is probably no wetlands on site ... but the DEP has the ultimate determination,” he said. “I think we as a board have to be prudent and protect our water and make sure our 300-foot buffers are kept.”

Bohlin said he voted against the application because a full woodlands management plan was not present at the time of preliminary and final approval.