+25
FAIR HAVEN – Following a four-month deferral to the zoning board, the piping hot debate over a proposed Dunkin’ continued Tuesday at Knollwood School, where planning board chair Todd Lehder pressed the applicant, Fair Haven Retail LLC, with an argument he boiled down to just three items.
“For me, it’s not about the volume of vehicles entering the parking lot at one time, but the traffic circulation, pedestrian circulation and biking circulation in the area,” Lehder said, before an audience that nearly filled the estimated 150 seats set up in the middle school gymnasium.
The site of the meeting was fitting, as Lehder expressed concerns about stressed commuters rushing in and out of the Fair Haven Shopping Center on River Road for a hot morning beverage, before motoring to work. Peak hours of operation for the shop are in the early mornings when Fair Haven students are making their way to school. Many traveling on foot or bicycle must cross over River Road near the shopping center to reach Knollwood School on Hance Avenue.
Knollwood School is located less than a half mile away from the shopping center, a popular place for students to visit and pick up snacks when they are permitted to leave school grounds for lunch midday.
Fair Haven resident Karen Lewis said the shopping center is also located just steps away from a school bus stop on Smith Street where she lives. Only a Valero gas station would separate the pickup site from the potential hustle and bustle of that parking lot.
“I see it every morning now. The bus stop is full of kids, some of which need to navigate past the lot to get to Smith Street,” Lewis said. “And these are high schoolers. Was it factored into the equation that many of them will probably want to enter the lot to grab coffee and a sugary breakfast snack in the morning? That’s a dangerous situation in its own right.”
The 760-square-foot Dunkin’, which does not include a drive-thru or walk-up window, went before the borough’s zoning board June 6 and was approved as a permitted-use at its proposed location in the shopping center’s breezeway.
The location was previously the longtime home of Laird’s, a stationery and printing shop.
However, the story really begins in April 2017 when this very planning board approved a proposed site plan submitted by Fair Haven Retail LLC to spruce up the aging and unsightly shopping center.
The plan called for cosmetic upgrades that would attract new tenants and inject life into the heart of the borough’s downtown business district.
Had the board understood Fair Haven Retail’s intentions two years ago, Lehder said, it might have viewed the site plans in a different light.
“I don’t care what you’re selling in that space. It’s the volume of people that are coming and going that’s concerning. Ninety cars an hour is a lot. And the center is older. And we didn’t approve it (in 2017) with the understanding that there would be this kind of volume. And if there’s ways to improve the situation, then let’s talk it through in a way that makes sense,” Lehder said.
The shopping center’s main entrance is just after Smith Street and the Valero gas station.
Patrons who motor east in a direction moving away from neighboring Red Bank can enter at that ingress and wind past a Chase Bank and the front door of an ACME supermarket before parking near the breezeway. There is additional parking behind the shopping center. The breezeway allows access to the proposed Dunkin’ from either the front or rear lots.
Lehder’s concerns arise when patrons miss that main entrance or, more likely, are traveling west on River Road toward Red Bank, the train station, the Garden State Parkway or another destination like Brookdale Community College.
Those facing that situation would most likely opt to use the center’s secondary entrance, which is also a primary exit point situated at the end of the lot opposite the Valero.
Lehder said the 24-foot-wide ingress and egress is a point of concern, especially when vehicles are looking to enter by making a left turn across River Road, while others wish to exit with a left turn of their own.
“We haven’t heard any expert testimony about traffic backups in the parking lot at this entry/exit point,” applicant attorney Michael Bruno said. “We all go to Booskerdoo for our morning coffee now. It’s the same kind of use with the same kind of concerns. There’s zero parking there and you don’t see backed up traffic.”
Fair Haven Retail principal manager Dan Hughes said the entity turned down many applicants, such as vape shops, army recruiting centers and secondhand retailers in order to find a tenant that would fit with Fair Haven. He also noted that Starbucks wouldn’t go near a location that did not include a drive-thru window.
“This is something that is permitted and would complement the community. There’s a reason there are 8,500 Dunkin’ Donuts locations around the country. It’s because people like them,” added Hughes, who said the chain is committed to signing a long-term lease at the location.
Resident Tracey Cole said her concerns are with the high potential for traffic backups in the lot, which would force drivers to find alternate exit points.
“There are six different driveways leading into the shopping center, including a back exit onto Foreman Street, which leads to Hance and Cedar. We can’t have commuter traffic comingling with our residential neighborhoods,” Cole added.
The three-hour session lasted until 11 p.m. The hearing is expected to conclude July 16 with more public comment and a possible vote.
