By Lea Kahn. Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — A former gasoline service station on the corner of Route 206 and Route 518, which has been vacant for more than a decade, will see new life as a Dunkin’ Donuts store with a drive-through window.
In a 5-3 vote Tuesday night, the Zoning Board of Adjustment approved the conditional use variance sought by Montgomery 206 Realty for the proposed Dunkin’ Donuts store. The store is a permitted use in the Highway Commercial zone, but the drive-through window required a conditional use variance.
Drive-through windows in a restaurant are allowed if the restaurant is located inside a shopping center; if the building does not have direct access to a public street, and if it is landscaped to visually screen the window, signage and driveway from other properties. The proposed site is not in a shopping center.
The entrance into the site on Route 206 is designed for cars to make a right-hand turn into the property and a right-hand turn out onto Route 206. The drive-through window lane would lead to a driveway exit onto Route 518, where cars could turn left or right.
It was that driveway onto Route 518 — and the left-hand turn out of it — which triggered much discussion Tuesday. The zoning board approved the conditional use variance, but stipulated that left-hand turns onto Route 518 would be prohibited.
Several residents of the Tapestry at Montgomery, an “active adult” development off Route 518, brought their concerns about traffic and the difficulty now of making left-hand turns from Route 518 onto Route 206 to the zoning board.
Thomas Giacobbe, who lives in the new Tapestry development and has lived in Montgomery for more than 35 years, urged the zoning board to reject the application. There is a dedicated left-turn lane with a directional arrow on Route 518 eastbound, but only about four cars can make it through the cycle, he told the board.
Allowing drivers to make a left-hand turn out of the driveway onto Route 518 will create a huge backup of traffic for cars in the dedicated left-turn lane, Mr. Giacobbe said. There are businesses on each corner of Route 518 and Route 206, and that intersection already is the site of many accidents, he said.
Jeff Sands, who also lives in the Tapestry development, called the intersection of Route 206 and Route 518 “horrific.” He said he did not see how adding a Dunkin’ Donuts would improve the quality of life and traffic flow at that main intersection in Montgomery.
Several zoning board members wrestled with permitting left-hand turns out of the Route 518 driveway. They agreed that the drive-through window — which the applicant said was essential to the Dunkin’ Donuts business — is the issue.
Traffic engineer Harvey Yesowitz, who represented the applicant, said the state Department of Transportation is requiring the left-hand turn out of the Route 518 driveway. It will not allow a left-hand turn out of the property onto Route 206, he said, because motorists who want to travel east on Route 518 — toward Rocky Hill — would have to force their way over to the left-turn lane on Route 206.
The NJDOT is not concerned with how difficult it may be to make a left turn out of the Route 518 driveway, Mr. Yesowitz said. The application still must be reviewed by the NJDOT, he said, and there are two waivers that are required. One is for the proximity of the Route 518 driveway to the traffic light, and the other is that the driveway is opposite a full-length left turn lane.
After considerable discussion, the Zoning Board of Adjustment agreed in a split decision to grant the conditional use variance on the condition to eliminate the left-hand turn from the Dunkin’ Donuts driveway onto Route 518.
