Intersection with Whitehead Road has faced controversy in previous applications.
By: Lea Kahn
A fast-food restaurant chain is eyeing the boarded-up former Sunoco gasoline service station on the corner of Brunswick Pike and Whitehead Road — if it can gain the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s approval.
The McDonald’s Corp. has filed an application for a use variance to tear down the abandoned service station building and build a fast-food restaurant with a drive-through window, according to plans on file at the township Department of Community Development.
A use variance is needed because fast-food restaurants are not permitted uses in the Neighborhood Center-1 zoning district. A public hearing before the Zoning Board of Adjustment tentatively has been set for June 14 at the municipal building.
The McDonald’s fast-food restaurant application is the latest in a series of sometimes-controversial development proposals for the site, which is owned by the Exxon Corporation. The site has lain dormant more than 15 years.
Exxon has been trying to redevelop the site since the early 1980s. The Planning Board approved the gasoline company’s plans for a service station in 1984, but the plans were put on hold because the company changed its approach. It wanted convenience stores to be included with the service stations.
In 1987, Exxon applied for a use variance for the service station and convenience store, because convenience stores were not permitted uses in the former Office/Commercial zone. The application was denied by the zoning board because the lot was too small.
Exxon reapplied for the service station and convenience store set-up in 1990, after acquiring more land. But the Zoning Board of Adjustment shot down the use variance request in December 1991, following a yearlong series of public hearings on the plans.
The 1990 service station/convenience store application stirred much neighborhood opposition, especially from homeowners on Mayflower Avenue. They said they were concerned about increased traffic and the prospect of increased crime that the service station and convenience store might draw to their community.