A former medical office at the corner of Elm and St. George avenues will be renovated and repurposed as a takeout deli.
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Following testimony across the December and January meetings, the Planning Board approved an application seeking preliminary and final major site plan with bulk C variances for 505 Elm Ave. (Block 143, Lot 7). The property sold in June for $517,000, according to property records. and assessed for $184,800, generating property taxes of $13,215.
The owners of Bella Gina’s in Linden plan to relocate to the site.. The deli will be pick-up only, no seating. Parking will be in the rear of the building, with 7 parking spaces and one handicapped space for a total of eight but 13 are required. There will be no dedicated loading area, with deliveries in the morning by van.
Parking requirements for a medical use actually are greater than a retail use though with a slight increase in the size of the building, the parking remains the same as far as requirement of 13 spaces, according to Stephen Hehl, an attorney representing the applicant.
The driveway will be one way in from Elm Avenue and one way out onto St. Georges Avenue, with a Do Not Enter sign placed on the St. Georges Avenue driveway. The exit from Elm Avenue onto St. Georges Avenue would become right-turn only.
Hours of operation are Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays only for catering pick-ups. Six employees but usually only four at the same time, according to owners Gina and Anthony Garofalo. Deliveries come every other day. The largest truck making deliveries, which usually last about 15 minutes, is a box truck, with deliveries typically between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., sometimes 10 a.m., and lasting about 15 minutes.
Following testimony at December’s meeting, the applicant was able to relocate the trash area, a concern of nearby neighbors, inside the building. By eliminating a stairway for the trash, they were able to add more parking in the back and reconfigure the entrance driveway, adding two parking spaces, according to Hehl.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, several residents of Elm Avenue raised concerns about the impact of traffic on the neighborhood. Lillian Piedra of Elm Avenue said accidents occur regularly at the intersection. “Those vans going to be parked in front of houses, in and out all the time. That’s not what we want on Elm,” she said.
Another Elm Avenue resident, Kim Ramirez, added that the medical office had only operated three days a week, including Sunday. “I hope we can find a way to conrol accidents. Pedestrians get hit there. Now you’ll have a business where cares are going in and out, not even staying,” she said.
“The biggest thing for me is the traffic,” said James Huezo, who lives directly across Elm Avenue from the site. “I can’t even back out of my driveway,…all you hear is people beeping…road rage is crezy because of the stop sign.”
If the use is permitted, the board cannot deny the application because of the amount of traffic generated by the use, Board Attorney Karl Kemm said. Given the permitted use, “there has to be some very important, big reason why we would say no to this.”
If this applicant wanted not to improve the building, he doesn’t have to come before the Planning Board since a deli is a permitted use in the zone, Engineer Victor Vinegra of Harbor Consultants said. Alternatively, the applicant could go to the zoning office and redo the building and not come before the Planning Board and would not have to improve buffers, lighting or parking.
Commissioner William Hering said the entirety of St. Georges Avenue in Rahway is mixed use, with commercial and residential, by design in the city’s master plan. “I believe this application will fit,” he said. “Sometimes when it doesn’t look right or it doesn’t fit right, it turns out pretty good.”
“Give it an opportunity, it may turn out to be a lot better than you see it right now.”
Editor’s note: This post was derived from an audio recording of the Jan. 23 Planning Board meeting and review of minutes of the Dec. 19 meeting.
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