The application for a zoning variance to build a Rite-Aid Pharmacy at the corner of Princeton-Hightstown and Cranbury roads was brought before the zoning board once again on Thursday, January 4. The presentation was not completed, but it was not met with approval from the board. ##M:[more]##
Richard Dreher, the would-be developer, first applied for a variance in early 2005. He has appeared before the Site Plan Review Advisory Board and the Zoning Board several times since, and has submitted multiple plans for the project, which includes the corner lot, currently occupied by an out-of-use garage and the adjacent lot, currently home to a strip mall. Dreher bought out the leases of all the strip mall tenants at the sugggestion of the township, according to his lawyer, Gary Forshner of Startk & Stark.
In addition to that, Forshner says, Dreher has paid for multiple renderings and plans for the site. “Few developers would have gone to such geat expense,” said Forshner.
The most recent rendering features two buildings: a 14,”673 square foot pharmacy, and a second building, which, according to the presentation could be a site for a Starbucks.
The site plan calls for 75 percent impervious coverage on the lots, known as 39/41 Princeton-Hightstown Road. The current zoning allows for 55 percent coverage. The Zoning Board would have to grant a variance for the application to proceed. No vote was taken on the variance, and the application will still have to be approved by SPRAB even if the Zoning Board of Adjustment gives its approval. Given the comments of its members at the meeting, approval does not seem likely.
John Roeder, chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, said the main building, which will be situated on a cornerstone property in the township’s redevelopment zone, reminded him of “a fortress.”
Susan Abbey, vice chair, who has served on SPRAB for the past year, said the applicants were not conforming to specific direction from SPRAB the last time they appeared before the entity. “This is not meeting the requirements now. SPRAB asked that the building be oriented so that the bulk of the building be facing the street. We don’t want it to look like it’s a single-story, single-use building. SPRAB asked that it be made to look like several two-story, multi-use buildings lined up side by side, a village look.” You keep coming back with a large, single story, single use building.”
Curtis Hoberman, a planning board alternate who has been appointed to serve on SPRAB for the next year, said, “We don’t want to blow this. My bottom line is: We’ve got to do better than this.”
The 27-foot high proposed main structure is intended to house a state-of-the-art pharmacy. Ray Gargano, director of construction for the project described the interior of the Rite-Aid as being twice as large as the current Rite-Aid in the Acme shopping center. The impending loss of lease for the site in the shopping center was the genesis of the current application.
Gargano said the new pharmacy would be open, and is designed to let in a great deal of natural light. The concept includes a drive-through for prescriptions, and a private consultation area for customers to meet with the pharmacist. Prescriptions would be filled behind a 5 x 15-foot glass wall. The store would include a seating area with a water cooler, blood pressure-testing machine, and big-screen television, all for public use.
The application included slides showing the way the developer would modify the normal design of single-structure Rite-Aid Pharmacies to mesh with the design elements expected to be imposed on redevelopment construction. The PNC Bank, recently opened on a lot across from the property in question, changed its roofline and fenestration, among other things, to incorporate the anticipated village center style.
The project’s engineer, William Vertino, stated that while the roof of the 6,”000-foot structure can be modified, the flat roof on the pharmacy is not negotiable. “We can’t arbitrarily alter that part of the design. It’s a package. The concept of the pharmacy on the inside and the outside of the structure is a package. They all go together,” said Vertino.
“There is a way to make a 14,”000 square foot building not look like a single-use building. We’re looking at two buildings, and a lot of parking in between them. That is not what SPRAB told you the township wants on this property,” said Abbey.
The next zoning board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 1.
