ShopRite Hearing Postponed to October

Inserra Supermarkets will not continue its quest for Planning Board approval on its ShopRite proposal this month.

The board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday, but a scheduled hearing on the application to construct a supermarket at the Greenwood Avenue shopping center has been moved to the board's Oct. 13 meeting.

"We had a lot of work to do" to make revisions to site plans in keeping with Planning Board comments in advance of the scheduled Monday session, Inserra attorney James Jaworski said. Those revised plans had not been filed in Town Hall in time to hold Monday's hearing, although Jaworski said amended architectural drawings are expected to be submitted next week.

"It will remain largely the same," the attorney said in reference to the plans to construct a 62,174-square-foot ShopRite at the site of the old A&P building.

However, they will be tweaked per suggestions at the last Planning Board hearing, when the aesthetics of the building were criticized although Inserra representatives had already won the recommendation of the township's advisory Design Review Board.

Chairman Richard Bonsignore indicated that the architectural review of site plans would continue before the Planning Board and specifically questioned the need for two clock towers on the building, which had been debated at length at the Design Review Board level. The chairman also asked Inserra representatives to include specifications on signage with their application. Although details on a variety of signs had been previously submitted with their plans, the signage shown on the architectural renderings were merely place-holders.

Inserra architect Thomas Ashbahian, a Wyckoff resident, will likely be called back for his third appearance before the Planning Board to continue testimony on its aesthetics before the board considers other concerns.

Among those is the landscaping plans for the site, which is mostly barren. Inserra representatives have appeared before the Shade Tree Commission, another advisory body whose work serves the Planning Board review, on several occasions, and landscaping plans have been amended in keeping with the commission's suggestions.

However, the commission's work isn't done. Members agreed earlier this week to table their discussion of the plan pending changes to the ShopRite site plans, feeling that it doesn't make sense to finalize specific plantings while the Planning Board considers the look and footprint of the building.

Jaworski agreed, saying there's "no point in finalizing planting until the site plans are finalized." 

Shade Tree Chairman Mark Borst had said he was "75 to 80 percent happy" with the current landscaping plans, which were amended following the commission's report earlier this year. However, he was concerned that while the green space on the site would be greatly increased, "there's nothing that will really pop," in terms of color and variety. The commission would like to see a greater variety of shrubbery and flowers.

"We have to address the plan as if we were building it," said commission member Scott Fisher.

Jaworski said he was open to further talks with the Shade Tree Commission.