As a recent experiment, Franc Gambatese, owner of Grover’s Mill Coffee shop in the Southfield Shopping Center, decided to plant a temporary sign around town alerting drivers that he would be offering free coffee that day.
The end result was exactly as he predicted: he got 30 more customers in his store that day, some of whom would not have even realized he was located in the shopping center on the corner of Route 571 and Southfield Road if not for the sign.
But Gambatese is not permitted to continue the practice; nor does he have any desire to continue doing so. Rather, he and other business owners around town want to be able to attract customers to their stores through legal signage.
The problem is that the township’s fairly recently revised sign ordinance does not permit viable options for them to advertise their businesses. Some even say that appropriate and reasonable signage may have prevented some of the local businesses that have crumbled in the poor economy from going under. Signs may have provided a small glimmer of hope if would-be customers on their way to work knew they were there. For others, it may have prevented them from moving to another town, where better signage options are permitted.
The problem was exemplified in the township Planning Board’s decision last month to give a variance to the owner of the Southfield Shopping Center that permits him to build a monument sign containing the names of all the businesses located there — not just between four and six names, as currently permitted by township ordinance. The decision was made against the advice of the township’s own professionals, who argued that the current sign ordinance was put in place to prevent an esthetic nuisance around town.
But now the Township Council is taking it a step further and will look at the sign ordinance to find areas where the language can be modified to become more business-friendly. During its May 3 meeting, council authorized Council members Diane Ciccone and Kamal Khanna to work with business owners, the mayor, and township professionals to come up with a draft of proposed changes to the sign ordinance.
Councilman Charles Morgan said he felt the only way the council could move forward was by getting the input from the business community by assigning two council members to meet with them.
“I feel for the man because there is a coffee shop there, and no one knows it’s there,” Morgan said, referring to Gambatese’s comments during the meeting.
Khanna said that since the sign ordinance went into effect, the economy has changed. Business owners “are the ones we should listen to first,” and not the planners, he said. “The complaints are coming from almost every shopping center we have.”
Gambatese, a former councilman, echoed that sentiment: “It’s a pretty big deal — this sign issue.”
He said he was “disturbed” by comments made by the township’s professionals at the board meeting, who spoke about “how much pride they take in how the town looks.” He said business owners do not want to install anything that looks bad.
He said there have been businesses moving out of many areas of the town. “Maybe if these businesses just had little more of an opportunity, they would have had a chance,” he said.
In March, 2009, council adopted changes to the sign ordinance that aimed to cut down on the appearance of the commercial real estate lease signs seen up and down Alexander Road’s commercial sector. The signs, officials said, gave the impression that the “whole town is for sale.” But it did not provide any relief for small business owners.
Gambatese also took issue with the professionals’ comments that tenants come and go, and that it was business as usual. “We’re not squatters; we’re not gypsies,” he said. “There are 20 businesses down there,” he said, referencing the shopping center’s tenants. “They’re not just tenants; they’re all families,” and some of them are township residents, he added.
Gambatese said that on his way into the meeting, he saw five temporary signs near the municipal building property, some of which advertised events in other towns. Some of the events had taken place weeks ago.
Describing his own experiment, Gambatese said he would rather see a reasonable sign ordinance that “tastefully” allows business owners to advertise their businesses. “I want to be a good citizen. I don’t want to break the rules,” he said.
It has already cost Gambatese over $4,000 to be able to put just six letters (in accordance with the sign ordinance) above his shop: “Coffee.” It cost him $2,000 to light it. On top of that, the trees on site grew taller, and have now blocked the site from view.
“You just want to be able to have a fair shot,” Gambatese said.
On the opposite side of Route 571, another business owner echoed Gambatese’s sentiments. Jonathan S. Sasportas, an oral surgeon with Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery of Central New Jersey, located directly across the street from the former Acme site, described the trouble the group’s patients have in finding their offices.
That is worsened by the appearance of that portion of Route 571, dubbed “Plywood Junction.”
New patients regularly drive past the office, having to turn around and circle the site until they find the location. “The monument sign is just impossible to read,” he said. But the dismal Acme site is more damaging than the signage, and people are getting the wrong impression of the area, he said.
Gambatese has also alluded to the appearance of that portion of Route 571. “There are rats, there are broken beer bottles because kids go back there to party,” he said of the Ellsworth site. “They’ve had 25 to 30 years to get their act together.” He said he was embarrassed by the center of town, which in some cases, looked worse than some areas of Patterson. “The site should be condemned.”
Talk of the appearance of Route 571 prompted discussion by council members. Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she was told that the developers of the future Rite Aid site agreed to break ground on demolition of the dilapidated buildings currently on the site. She said she hoped that the construction of the CVS down the road on Route 571 and Southfield Road on the WWM site, would spark action on the Rite Aid site.
Morgan said the council should rethink its philosophy about not using eminent domain in the redevelopment area, barring any impact it would have on the InterCap case.
Some residents had called for the township to do more when it comes to the site of the Ellsworth Shopping Center, which has remained in a dilapidated state for nearly two decades. Ciccone said if residents had an appetite for the township to condemn the Ellsworth site and buy it to fix it, she would consider the idea.
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said condemnation involves getting the property appraised, and the township would have to provide fair market value as compensation as part of any condemnation proceeding. In case of the Rite Aid site alone, Herbert used as a reference point, the owner of the property paid $4 million to purchase it, he said. That could be costly to the township during an already-tight budget season.
