Planners will review Dunkin Donuts plan

Board meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Municipal Building.

By: Lea Kahn
   The abandoned gasoline service station on the corner of Whitehead Road and Brunswick Pike may become a Dunkin’ Donuts store, if the Planning Board approves at its Monday night meeting.
   The Planning Board will consider GSA of Whitehorse Inc.’s application for preliminary and final site plan approval at its meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Lower Level Conference Room at the Municipal Building.
   The applicant wants to demolish two vacant buildings on the service station lot and an adjacent lot, and construct a two-story building that would house the Dunkin Donuts store and another commercial use. The second floor would contain four two-bedroom rental apartments. There would be 38 parking spaces.
   Several variances or exceptions would be required, under the proposed plan. The plan calls for removing a 30-inch-diameter tree in the center of the tract. Specimen trees cannot be removed unless they are diseased, so an exception would be needed, according to a report prepared by Planning Board planning consultant Philip Caton.
   Several smaller trees, measuring at least 8 inches in diameter, also would need to be removed to provide for a parking lot. An exception also would be needed to cut down those trees, Mr. Caton wrote in his report.
   The site is included in the township’s Brunswick Pike South Redevelopment Area, Mr. Caton wrote. Replacing vacant buildings with a mixed-use development that contains retail uses on the first floor and housing on the second floor will help to implement the goals of the Redevelopment Plan, he wrote. The goal is to revitalize the neighborhood.