Basile’s
seeks OK
to expand
By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — There will be more room at the inn, so to speak, if Basile’s Italian Restaurant on Park Avenue receives approval for a 1,209-square-foot dining area addition.
The existing restaurant sits on an L-shaped 1.85-acre piece of property zoned general commercial.
The preliminary/final application presented to the Planning Board on Oct. 23 by the applicant’s attorney, Thomas Demar-est, is part of a five-year plan initiated in 1995 by co-owners Robert Pesce and Vito Basile. Also testifying for the applicant was project engineer Bruce Jacobs.
Phase two of the plan calls for an extension at the rear of the existing 3,529-square-foot building that will bring the total size of the business to 4,738 square feet.
The new dining area will seat approximately 40 additional guests. Outdoor seating will remain the same. Upgrades in the facade and a new paver area in the front of the building are also planned.
The proposed plan calls for 55 parking spaces and a ramp that will provide access directly into the main entrance of the restaurant.
Planning officials said a garbage bin at the rear of the building will be moved to the end of the parking lot and will be expanded to a 10-by-30-foot structure. The garbage bin will remain a shared structure between Basile’s and a neighboring Domino’s pizza store.
Pesce said extensive landscaping will be planted on the patio and in the front of the restaurant to blend in with the plantings that were already a part of the restaurant’s phase one plan.
Planning Board member Laura Mulroy asked if the owners expected to have any new facades go along with the borough’s historic atmosphere and design standards.
"We’d like to enhance the area," Pesce explained, stating that he intended to have the restaurant’s design blend in with other businesses in the neighborhood.
Demarest said when the planning reaches the final stage the design will be consistent with the borough’s requirements. He said the rendering presented that evening was a conceptual design.
Code Enforcer Hank Stryker III, who sits on the board, told the applicant that the final design should have been prepared and presented to the board that night.
"Sometimes what is approved and then later built are two very different animals," Stryker said.
Board Vice Chairman Michael Buchalski told the applicant to return with final plans on Dec. 11 for a final review of the application.