BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — A developer seeking to build the Summerhill Square shopping center on the largely vacant Meyer’s site will again go back to the drawing board.
The Planning Board last week took issue with changes made by Pagano Real Estate Inc. and said the plan has become removed from the village-type design discussed last year. That design called for a “lifestyle center” retail complex with a Main Street theme, upscale shops, and sidewalks with brick pavers and benches. It was likened to Pagano’s The Grove shopping center on Route 35 in Shrewsbury.
Township officials last year celebrated the announcement that such a project was being proposed to replace the dilapidated Route 18 shopping center. Pagano has a contract to purchase the shopping center from the Branciforte family.
Planning Board members, who in February asked Pagano to scale back the proposal, said last week that the plan, which includes about 150,000 square feet of retail space, varies too greatly from the original concept. Though a vote was expected at the board’s April 28 meeting, none was taken. After complaints from board members and several breaks that allowed Pagano representatives to discuss the situation, Pagano attorney David Himelman asked if the matter could be carried to a future meeting.
One sticking point was Pagano’s refusal to break the large retail center into two halves and allow for a road through the center. Mayor William Neary, also a board member, said such a separation would not only provide a better look to the shopping center, but it would also be helpful for drainage purposes.
Neary also said the lifestyle center, as first shown to the board in November, was no longer the plan.
“I’m concerned about this,” he said.
He added that he feels it would make sense to have a road with wide sidewalks in the split between the buildings.
Board Chairman Shawn Taylor said that without the split, a lot of traffic would stay behind the shopping center, near an entrance and exit on Summerhill Road. But the areas behind malls tend to go unmaintained, accumulating junk and debris, he said.
At a previous hearing, the board expressed a similar desire to have the buildings separated.
Last week, Pagano’s traffic expert testified that in some cases such a split is needed, but he felt this plan did not merit one. Breaking up retail buildings is needed if there are limited access points from the road to the shopping center, and if there are very large buildings. He said he felt the site has enough access points, with four, and that the buildings are relatively small.
He went so far as to argue that such a split would be dangerous because it would mix car and truck traffic. Trucks would be making deliveries in the rear of the building.
The township brought forth its own engineer, Nicholas Verderese, of Schoor DePalma, to argue in favor of the split.
Verderese said mixing car and truck traffic is OK in certain cases. He noted that a drive aisle between the buildings would allow trucks to drive through the center in areas where there is no parking. It would also better distribute traffic.
He noted that The Grove is an example of a retail center with a drive aisle in between the two main retail pads.
Verderese also noted how, despite the access points along Route 18, it is believed most of the traffic will come from Summerhill Road.
Pagano was given a continuance so that the board’s comments could be considered.
Pagano was hoping to break ground on the project this summer, with R.J. Brunelli & Co. appointed as leasing agent. Prospective tenants for the shopping center have not been named.