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An application to covert an auto repair garage at Elizabeth and Cedar avenues into a small convenience center raised more questions than it provided answers at the April 3 Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting.
The triangular-shaped property also holds a Delta gas station, which will remain under the plan.
The plan itself caused some confusion because the applicants, Manjit Bajwa and Ravinder Kaur, submitted a revised plan at the beginning of the hearing, giving neither the Board nor Township planning professionals any time to review it.
“Staff reviewed a completely different plan,” Mark Healey, the Township’s Principal Planner, told the Board. “This is the first time we’re seeing it. So I’m not really sure what, I don’t know, I’m not sure what the applicant’s intent is, to tell you the truth.”
“We’re trying to come up with an approach that enhances visually the site while doing so in a responsible way,” Michael Selvaggi, the applicants’ attorney, told the Board. “We understand that this would have to be more engineered out, but what we want to do is let the board see what an option is.”
“The trade-off here is more landscaping, perhaps a better visual site at the expense of some parking spaces, and if that is a direction the board thinks is better than what was proposed, we’ll design it, and then allow the board’s professional staff to look at it,” he said.
But that wasn’t what the Board wanted, mainly because the revised plan called for just six parking spaces when 18 are required.
“In preparing for this and looking at the reports and everything else, we felt that this may be an option that would fly better than what was originally proposed,” Selvaggi said.
“You need to prove that this site is particularly suitable to be both a gas station and a convenience store,” Healey said. “And you have a number of different variances, but … you’re required to have 18 parking spaces, and you have six. You have a third of the required parking spaces.”
Healey also expressed concern that a tanker truck filling the gas pumps would block two or more of those parking spaces, forcing the convenience store customers to park on Cedar Avenue.
“But the difference is this isn’t the only convenience store,” Selvaggi said. And people, … if you can’t get to it, they just won’t come. You’ll go down to the next one.”
“I don’t know if that’s something that the board can hang their hat on,” Healey said. “You need to prove that this site is particularly suitable to be both a gas station and a convenience store. I’m just going to make that clear to make sure the board understands that that’s the burden that the applicant has.”
Bajwa told the Board that the reason they wanted to make the conversion is that modern cars are getting too technically advanced for their mechanics, and car manufacturers are offering longer warranties.
The convenience store would be his own brand, Seventh Heaven, Bajwa said. He said he has 14 other such locations.
The application’s next hearing will be at 7:30 p.m. June 5 in the Council chamber.
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