By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Five newly appointed Planning Board members will be sworn into office before the board launches a public hearing on an application for a new restaurant at the Quaker Bridge Mall at its annual reorganization meeting Monday night.
The Planning Board will meet at 7 p.m. in the lower level conference room at the Municipal Building. A chairman and vice-chairman will be chosen, and the board will appoint its recording secretary, attorney, planning consultant and engineer.
A traffic consultant, a noise consultant and a special traffic consultant also will be appointed. Four Planning Board members will be chosen for the board’s screening committee, which reviews major applications in advance of the regular meeting. A representative to the Growth & Redevelopment and Shade Tree Advisory committees also will be chosen.
Then, the Planning Board will begin its review of a proposed restaurant at the Quaker Bridge Mall, plus Public Service Gas & Electric Co.’s application to expand the electric distribution substation on Bunker Hill Road, next to its high tension transmission lines.
Lawrence Associates, which owns the Quaker Bridge Mall, is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval to construct a new restaurant that would be adjacent to the recently opened Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
The plan calls for a 7,431-square-foot Brio Tuscan Grille restaurant. The restaurant, which is part of a national chain, would seat 275 patrons including an outdoor seating area of about 1,100-square feet that is similar to the one at the Cheesecake Factory. There would be an entrance to the restaurant outside and one inside the mall.
Brio Tuscan Grille offers brunch, lunch and dinner menus. It features soup, salad, pasta, chicken, fish and steak dishes. The nearest Brio Tuscan Grille restaurant is located at the Freehold Raceway Mall in Freehold.

