By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Sometime in the future, Hillsborough imagines a built-up town center in the area of intersection of Amwell Road and Route 206.
Master plans envision multi-story buildings separated only by sidewalks from the street, with stores or offices on first floors, and apartments or condominiums on upper ones. Parking would largely be located behind buildings, and walking would be encouraged.
The Shoppes at Woods Road, a cluster of buildings that house eating places, nail salons and retail stores at the northwest corner of the intersection, occupies a key section of the real estate in that targeted “town center” zone. Now, Shoppes wants to build on the land behind the shops and Petrock’s restaurant, but doesn’t meet all the specifications of the “town center” ideal.
Shoppes proposed its plan for three mixed-use buildings in 2011, but was denied by the zoning Board of Adjustment.
The zoning board said the proposal continued the existing development pattern, while using the town center incentives for additional density. It denied the application in September 2011 in 5-0 vote.
Shoppes sued, and an appellate judge this fall sent the case back to the zoning board for reconsideration.
That rehearing process began Wednesday, Feb. 3. It will continue May 4 with a planner and traffic engineer set to testify.
Alexander Fisher, the attorney for Shoppes, argued that the plan would bring the township part of the way toward its town center goal. It would add mixed uses of retail, offices and residential, all of which would add density and bring people to the area. To enact its vision, the town has a lot of pieces to fall together, he said, and this plan gives part of it.
Shoppes asks the board to approve fewer residences on upper floors and wants permission to add offices as well as retail on first floors. But owner David Gardner refused to budge on giving up on much of the parking in front of stores that front on Route 206, calling it economic suicide and risking the departure of businesses that demand it and depend on the front-door parking.
Shoppes wants a use variance to build 26 one-, two- or three-bedroom apartments on second or third floors in three new buildings behind the shopping center. Township ordinances want more; 41 was cited as the target number for the square footage of proposed buildings.
Township ordinances would want to see the housing spread more among all the buildings, but architect Robert Larsen said it was structurally impossible to add apartments above the strip of stores that includes Pizza Hut and a Polish deli facing Route 206. That means there would be three apartments in each of two new buildings and 10 on both the second and third floors of the third building.
Shoppes is also asking for use variances to allow office uses on the first floor of the buildings, where only retail uses are permitted. It wanted parking in front of all existing buildings to remain.
Robert Heibell, the engineer for the applicant, said one advantage of the plan was that it would combine Amwell Road driveways for the shopping area and Petrock’s to provide cross-access to all properties. He said the applicant would also build part of a future road that would conceivably run from Amwell Road at the light at the post office and parallel to Route 206 to New Amwell Road.
But the discussion bogged down much as it did four years ago when it came to the question of parking in front of stores along Route 206. Mr. Gardner steadfastly insisted Shoppes needed the rows of parking spots that are both perpendicular to the front of the stores and Route 206.
In the future, when the Route 206 bypass is completed and the present road is given back to the town to become more of a Main Street, Mr. Fisher said the applicant would agree to change the spaces along the street from perpendicular to parallel. Parking directly in front of buildings must stay, the applicant said.
“Our tenants would go out of business and the value of the property would go down,” said Mr. Gardner.
Asked if he would not give up parking in any way, he said, not under any circumstances.
“That would be suicide,” he said.
Board Chairman Steven Sireci Jr. asked how Somerville — the template often mentioned for Hillsborough — survives without such parking on the street, Mr. Gardner said it has density, a train and a complete downtown.
“It has to start somewhere if you’re ever going to get to that vision,” replied Dr. Sireci.
