Applicant seeks approval for new convenience store
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

JACKSON - The Planning Board has heard the initial round of testimony regarding plans for the construction of a convenience store on Cassville Road, between Thompson Bridge and Freehold roads.

Cassville Road is also known as Route 571. The proposed development site is in the Cassville section of Jackson, across from St. Vladimir Memorial Church, which is a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia.

"The applicant [Al Heyer] originally proposed to construct a 5,900-square-foot building which included 1,900 square feet of office space and 4,000 square feet of retail space," said Douglas F. Klee, the board's engineer.

"The application is in the Neighborhood Commercial Zone and there are a number of variances being requested for insufficient lot area, insufficient lot berm on Thompson Bridge Road, insufficient lot berm on Cassville Road, insufficient lot berm on Freehold Road, insufficient lot depth, insufficient setbacks, insufficient side yard setbacks and insufficient parking setbacks," he said.

Klee said there is a concern regarding wetlands on the site. Public water and sewer will service the site.

"There is a concern regarding traffic safety," he said. "This application is at the entrance of three roads and there is a concern about the sight line."

There is also deficient parking, Klee said, explaining that 30 parking spaces are required by ordinance and only 23 parking spaces are being provided by the applicant.

"Road improvements are being proposed since there are no curbs or sidewalks on the adjacent roads," Klee said.

Attorney Frederick Kalma, representing applicant Al Heyer, said, "This application is to develop what is currently a dilapidated single-family home at the intersection of three roads with retail space … The second floor area is not going to be third party rental space. The second floor area is going to be a 200-square-foot office space for the downstairs tenant and the balance will be storage. There is no basement on site."

Project engineer Chester DiLorenzo said this is a unique site with a 20,000- square-foot lot on Cassville Road between Freehold and Thompson Bridge roads.

"The lot has three frontages," the engineer said. "The last use was a residential dwelling. However, this is formerly the Russian Café and it was also used as a Russian tea house in the past." DiLorenzo said the building occupied

some 3,600 square feet

of footprint including a second

floor and an existing

parking area.

"We understand that

the building is unsafe

and we would like to take

it down and move forward

with an application," he said. "This is a very unique and difficult property to develop."

DiLorenzo said there is no intent to have the second story used for anything other than storage and a small office space.

"The raised center of the building is an architectural feature to make the building look more attractive as opposed to having a rectangular one-story building," DiLorenzo said. "We are proposing a roughly 4,000-square-foot building on a 20,000-square-foot lot. We calculated the parking needed for this to be 22 parking stalls.

"Due to the difficulty of the sight triangle the best location for any proposed use on this property would be to the extreme eastern side of the property backing up to the vacant building behind us … As a result, the parking winds up in the front yard of the three roads and due to the geometry of the building there are front yard setbacks required on each side road," he explained.

DiLorenzo said the applicant is proposing to make the building a deli or a convenience store with four employees.

"If the board favors the application, we would submit to a review by a chosen architectural review committee so that the actual building can be designed to meet the architectural requirements of the zone" he said. "Cedar sidings, brick and stone front and rear. [We are] not looking to build something that is out of character.

"We are aware of the Russian Orthodox church across the street and we would like to keep (the building) within Jackson's criteria to make it attractive and to meet the needs of the community. We have taken a very difficult site and engineered it with a usable facility and hopefully we can make it work very well for Jackson," the engineer said.

Testimony indicated that the business would be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and that lights would stay on until 10:30 p.m. It was stated that there will not be tables in the store.

Testimony on this application was carried to the board's March 17 meeting.