Planning Board Members Fear Ronald and Wendy Could Displace Mom & Pop

Some members of the planning board speculate that a whopper of an ordinance revision to allow fast food restaurants into the largely mom-and-pop CBD would be met with considerable unease from the Ridgewood public. Still, the village is going ahead with potentially revising its restrictive and controversial "fast food" ordinance.

Established over 30 years ago and dubbed Ridgewood's "Fast Food Ordinance," the code restricts certain establishments–defined as serving "readily consumable" food in paper plates, plastic cups, etc.–from operating in the B-1 zone but conditionally in B-2 zone, which requires variances through the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Tasked with reworking the ordinance for the second time in recent months, Village Planner Blais Brancheau said Tuesday night that the definitions of what slow food and fast food constituted were more clear when it was originally written.

"It used to be when you talked about fast food you talked about a drive-up restaurant or a walk-up restaurant or you got your food through a window," he said. "Since that time the food service industry has changed greatly and many uses today have components of fast food."

Examples of such establishments already in Ridgewood are Dunkin' Donuts, bakeries, pizza places, a Chinese restaurant, Ben & Jerry's and even grocery stores.

Brancheau proposes eliminating the ordinance distinction between fast food and slow food. Drive-thrus would also be prohibited under his potential revisions.

Additionally, the planner said eliminating the requirement of a conditional use gives the village a stronger position in regulating restaurants in the downtown.

Changing the character of Ridgewood?

However, several planning board members expressed concern that they'd be opening Pandora's box by allowing well-known corporate chains like McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and others into the village's quaint local economy, potentially displacing small businesses and salting its citizens with big signs, big crowds, big smells and big litter.

"I do have a concern with a chain coming in," member Kevin Reilly said. He remarked that "plenty of chains" are already in neighboring towns without high foot or vehicular traffic. Reilly said he thinks it "really takes away from the streetscape."

"Of course local merchants won't be happy with that either," he added.

Member Jane Shinozuka echoed Reilly's point, calling it a "big picture issue" and saying she too believes residents would look at a change this drastic unfavorably. "It just seems like a dangerous categorization," she said.

Others wondered if fast food establishments could be restricted to a certain distance away from schools–which Brancheau said would be difficult to do under equal protection clauses–while member Nancy Bigos said the village should find a way to utilize professional staff to welcome appropriate establishments while "holding the line" on others.

Still, Brancheau said history is on the village's side. He doesn't believe the traditional fast food big macs would even move in. They've had the ability to attempt to get into Franklin Avenue for decades (zoned B-2), he said, but haven't.

"I'm not aware of a single application, much less approval, for one of the traditional chains in the downtown area in that time period. The relief requirements are relatively easy to obtain. And the chains know this," he said. "I think if they wanted, they'd at least try. But they haven't."

Mom & Pop versus Corporate

Beyond that, Brancheau said, the village's existing ordinances control architectural and signage displays, mitigating concerns of a "garish" presence. Excluding businesses that would be falling under the same permitted uses as others on subjective grounds defies sound zoning principles, Brancheau said.

The village could look at restricting uses and not definitions (for instance, smells from grease) but that's also something of a quagmire. "If I'm going to object to fast food odors . . . I have to object to grease with Chinese restaurants, to grease with pizza parlors," Brancheau said.

The current law could also lead to lawsuits given the exclusionary nature, and a revision to the ordinance has been recommended in several master plan reexaminations.

Perhaps even more critical is the charge that the ordinance has already negatively impacted Ridgewood's struggling CBD. Six businesses have been denied permits in the past six months because they fall under the fast food thumb, according to the village planner. All are small businesses, not chains and few have the means to fight a denied application, Brancheau said.

Board Vice Chairman Albert Pucciarelli said he didn't think a decision should be made on the grounds of a mom-and-pop versus corporate burger shop. "You can have a mom and pop fast food facility just as much as you can have a very attractive national chain."

Besides, he added, there's a benefit to the chains. "It doesn't seem the chains are closing like non-chains. What we should regulate is the appearance and physical use . . . It's about land use."

Impact on retail shops, what happens next

"Are we then also creating an environment to attract food restaurants and detract other types of businesses?" board chair Charles Nalbantian asked. "The more we open that door, the more restaurants [render the village] a restaurant mecca and slowly retail businesses that we've been trying to attract" eventually move out.

Given that many perspective business owners, the chamber of commerce president and others have asked the village to reconsider the ordinance, Mayor Keith Killion said the issue might need to be decided before another Master Plan reexamination.

"The only reason this was brought [to the planning board] is because there were inquiries that the ordinance should be upgraded," he said. "My involvement is neither to endorse nor not endorse it but to bring it to the appropriate boards."

Killion expects any changes would take as much as six months or more and it would potentially bounce up to council for another vote, which was denied in March.

"We do have to take our time and think of all the possibilities," he said.