The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A three-story, 25-unit mixed-use building was approved for a tract on Hamilton Street by the Planning Board at its April 12 meeting.
The building, targeted for a half-acre lot at the corner of Hamilton and Shevchenko Avenue, will have up to 2,728 square feet of first-floor retail space, and, split between the second and third floors, nine one-bedroom apartments and 16 two-bedroom apartments.
Plans call for 45 parking spaces for tenants, including an open garage.
Although the plan calls for retail store employees and customers to use on-street parking, Mark Healey, the township’s Principal Planner, asked the developer to consider allowing off-street parking for the retail, too.
This was the second crack at this application for developer Mohamed Nassim. The Board in July 2022 told Nassim to go back to the drawing board because too many elements of the plan then were ambiguous.
Board members this time around were satisfied with what they saw.
One of the complaints in July was that the developer was trying to jam too much building on the lot.
Project architect Ashaf Ragab said the building’s size was reduced by about 10 percent, as were the apartment units.
Board vice-chairman Charles Brown said he thought the applicant “has done a decent job of addressing the issues” brought up during that first hearing.
