Sonic restaurant wins OK from planners in Howell
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

HOWELL- Sonic, the largest chain of drive-in restaurants in the United States, is coming to Howell.

W&W II filed an application with the Planning Board seeking preliminary and final site plan approval for a fast food restaurant at Route 9 south and New Friendship Road.

Approval for what will be a Sonic restaurant was granted by the board on March 6. The chain has a menu that is centered around hamburgers.

According to information presented at the meeting, the applicant initially received preliminary and final site plan approval to construct a Wendy's fast food restaurant at Route 9 south and New Friendship Road. Last week the applicant sought an amended preliminary and final site plan approval to construct a Sonic restaurant instead of a Wendy's.

According to a report prepared by the board's engineer, Ernest Peters, some of the proposed modifications to be made to the original plan are: the building area has been reduced from 2,991 square feet to 1,728 square feet; there will be an outdoor seating area to accommodate 30 patrons; the parking area has been reconfigured, yielding an increase from 34 to 37 spaces; and an additional access drive, just west of a bank, has been provided from the existing interior circulation.

T he Sonic restaurant will sit on a 7-acre site and have 320 feet of frontage on Route 9 south. The building will be red brick, one story, with a drive-up lane. It is next to a retail shopping center, according to information provided by Peters' report.

Because of the different entities that surround the proposed site, Peters recommended that the applicant consider installing a sidewalk at the restaurant location.

"We strongly recommend sidewalks along the frontages. We have a bus stop and people who walk, shop and live" in that area, Peters said.

The applicant's representatives said the applicant would install sidewalks in the area.

Traffic engineer John Rea said the Sonic restaurant would generate the same impact from a traffic point of view that the Wendy's restaurant would have produced.

He said, "50 percent of the traffic drawn to this site will be on-site traffic" from the adjacent shopping center.

The Sonic restaurant will have car hops who will deliver customers' orders and maintain the lot in regard to trash.

Before board member Paul Schneider made a motion to approve the project he asked the applicant to provide a nonsmoking sign in the proposed patio area. Paul Sayah seconded Schneider's motion to grant the approval.

Schneider, Sayah, board Chairman Christopher Estevez, Alicia Iammatteo, Robert Nicastro and Vincent Tantillo voted to approve the application.