Planning Board Says 'OK' to Highway Rezoning

A move to allow for more business development on Route 17 is no longer stuck in gridlock after the planning board voted unanimously Tuesday to pass a resolution creating a "highway commercial" zone.

Village Planner Blais Brancheau wedged between Route 17, Linwood and Paramus Avenues. One of the two properties had previously been granted commercial zoning status in the 1980s through a variance.

The other property, for decades and once the proposed site for housing developments, storage facilities and other uses, was more controversial.

Over the few years, residential neighbors worried about facing an increase in traffic, noise and other detriments in an area that had been zoned residential for a half century.

Brancheau and proponents maintained the area – facing Route 17 – was better suited to business development than residential

Access in the "HC" zone is restricted to just Route 17 with buffers to the roads, ramps and residential properties. Lot size and density requirements are also present in the plan.

The amendment to the Master Plan's land use section would prohibit auto sale businesses, gas stations, repair garages, industrial uses, warehousing, drive-in restaurants, 24/7 establishments and others. Permitted uses would be retail, banks, offices, personal service establishments, childcare centers, veterinarians along with single-family housing.

Burroughs's attorney Tom Wells said at a recent meeting a Starbucks along with a bank was a possibility to move into the undeveloped property.

With unanimous passage, the resolution will now be directed to the county for approval, afterwhich an ordinance would be drafted.