Video: Retired M.D. tells Morristown board that doughnuts are delicious…and deadly
Six hours of testimony that stretched into early Tuesday failed to resolve the fate of a Dunkin’ Donuts proposed for the Gulf station at Washington and Mills streets.
The application has been baking in the Morristown zoning board’s oven since January, and it will get reheated yet again on Dec. 14, 2015, at another special session.
“We’re taking what’s there, and making it better,” contended John McDonough, planner for the applicant, Madison Enterprises LLC. Augmenting the gas station with a fast food restaurant would be preferable to continuing auto repair operations on the site, he said.
At least one neighbor agreed. Harvey Gilbert, whose law office is on Washington Street, praised the developers for trying to spruce up the corner.
“The difference between lug nuts and doughnuts should be decided in favor of doughnuts,” Gilbert said.
But the project needs 10 zoning variances. Concessions about buffer zones and litter pickups from attorney Jay DeLaney Jr., Morristown’s former mayor, did not deter a large crowd from pressing concerns about snarled traffic, pedestrian safety, litter and noise.
A few residents stayed to the bitter end–12:30 a.m.–to voice their comments.
A planning expert representing objectors warned that the restaurant would intensify and expand what already is a “nonconforming use” in an office/residential zone.
“Whether the [town] master plan says it or not, statewide policy is for nonconforming uses to wither and die,” said Peter Steck, a civil engineer hired by 29 families who live near the busy intersection.
For customers, navigating any of four proposed driveways and squeezing past the gas pumps to access 11 planned parking spaces would be a feat akin to solving a Rubik’s Cube puzzle, according to another engineer, Steven Pylypchuk, who resides near the gas station.
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‘THEY ARE KILLING PEOPLE’
Juan Navarro, whose home abuts the back end of the site, choked up when his turn to testify finally came late on Monday. “For me personally, and for a lot of people, it’s going to change their way of living,” he said, asking the board to reject the application.
But the most impassioned remarks came form Louise Karger, a retired M.D. who strongly opposed locating fast food within a short walk of elementary- (Alexander Hamilton) and Morristown High School students.
“If we are going to allow a variance for a different use on that corner, it should be for something healthy and positive. Not for a company that sells the stuff that is killing people: Sugar, fat and salt. Believe me, I am not exaggerating. They are killing people,” said Karger.
The obesity epidemic is fed by easy availability of junk foods that are “cheap, quick [and] a source of calories. People eat what is readily available to them. Children eat what is readily available to them,” the doctor said.
Karger acknowledged she would love to eat Dunkin’ Donuts every day.
“They are delicious, they are virtually irresistible, which makes them addictive. Which is exactly the problem.”
DeLaney and Tom Sheridan, lawyer for area residents, are expected to sum up their cases on Dec. 14, for a board vote. But here’s some friendly advice for trustees:
Don’t make any plans for Christmas Eve.
MORE ABOUT THE DUNKIN’ DONUTS APPLICATION
Video: Longtime resident urges board to dunk Dunkin’
As a long time Morristown resident, I was curious to see our government in action, so as punishment to myself, I decided to attend this meeting. I stayed for the whole 5-1/2 hours. I understand that this particular application has been on-going for almost one year. Credit must be given to the board for listening to lots of testimony, many of it passionate from various members of the community. Personally, I find many of the arguments given by the residents spurious at best. I’m a capitalist and believe in limited government, so when I hear someone saying the government shouldn’t allow me to purchase a 32oz soda or I shouldn’t be allowed to purchase a donut, I get upset. If you don’t want it, don’t purchase it. If you don’t want your kids to have it, teach them not to drink/eat it. Take responsibility and ownership for your actions and stop telling me what I can and can’t do or eat, and I do realize that obesity and diabetes is a problem in this country. The argument about increased litter in the street is also a poor one. Why should the owner of a business be responsible for this? Besides, we already have laws that address this issue. Many residents made comments about currently existing traffic problems and issues with the signage at the cross-walks. I’m sure there is a different government agency, not a planning board that handles these types of issues. Than there was the issue of one use/two use of the gas pumps/service station. Businesses evolve over time and personally I think today most service stations have some type of retail market in them. So, I don’t see an issue with that point. What I do have an issue with is how this project is being presented. I see no compelling reason to give a variance for landscape buffering around the property, sidewalk cutouts, signage size, parking space size, etc. From an overall streetscape, I don’t see how this project fits into the master plan that was mentioned throughput the meeting. If the board is really representing the community, voting down this project is the obvious thing to do.
A similar dunkin donuts/gas station opened on a similarly small lot in Roxbury at the intersection of route 10 and Eyland Ave. While building it, I thought ” how are they going to fit both on that small lot?”. Now that it is finished and open…they fit perfectly, as it would in Morristown. It would give residence on this side of town an option to avoid the traffic of crossing town. Give change a chance. Everyone went crazy when Portofino’s wanted to expand..and that has been fine.
I grew up one block away from this site( Atno Ave) and I attended Alexander Hamilton school. I walked from home to the school. I walked to baseball
games at Burnham park. I still walk in that area.
I am a real town native. As such , I wonder why most of the people who do not want this are from Morristownship?
Many of them live in Morristownship near Burnham park. I give them credit for keeping the park up. Thank you .
But this area of Morristown does not have any coffee shops. It needs some kind of services for folks who seek a warm cup of coffee while out for a walk. Many clients I assume would also be walking there. What about them?
Town should vote yes . It is a Morristown issue.
If the people of Morristownship near there really cared about the people of Morristown they would put some efforts into the sharing or merging of public services with Morristown. That would help the high property taxes in both towns.
In the future New Jersey towns will have to start merging services because it makes no sense to have over 600 +separate town governments and over 600+ public school districts . Right now NJ is number one in people leaving and companies leaving. The reason? Cost of living . The property taxes!
We have the best public schools in the country. But they come at a price. One of the only solutions is to start merging town services. Right now the State is over $62 billion dollars in debt to the State pension system . Where is the money going to come from to pay that off and future pensions?
How can Dunkin be ok there, when the same board turned down the Pizza shop as part of Whole Foods. The Whole Foods had ample parking, and a plan that would not create extra traffic at a intersection. I have not been following this closely, but a commenter said there would still be gas pumps…. Is that accurate, so there would be a gas station and a Dunkin. If so, thats crazy and dangerous.
I think the clear cut zoning issues here as laid out by planner Peter Steck are not that hard when you eliminate all the rhetoric and the emotion. NJ zoning law gives the community an opportunity to provide for its needs in a rational manner. Morristown in both its zoning and its master plan discussed the fact that Morristown already had more gas stations than it needed for a community of its size. That location is defined as being suited for office or residential use. The type of repair service that was there is no longer needed, which is why that portion of the business failed. It is not the obligation of the zoning baord to provide a means for a failing business to become more profitable again. If it was, Morristown would have offered that opportunity to its adult book shops, pin ball parlors and trampoline centers.
The site itself is inadequate for the old or the new use . Niethter use is permitted. Two illegal uses are not better then one. Common sense should prevail.
Zoning boards have a responsibility to enforce the laws in a manner that benefits the community and not to help applicants to find ways to get around them. Just because we are surrounded by uses that never should have been permitted, does not mean that Morristown has to continue to make the same mistakes.
I’m thankful for all the residents who stayed till 12:30 AM on a work/ school night to voice their concerns. These late night meetings need to end – they do not serve the residents well but rather serve the applicant who has to return to another hearing (thus paying their experts to come back). As for the DD – 10 variances? 4 Driveways? We do not need *another* DD nor do we need a fast-food restaurant. Our master plan doesn’t provide for this use. The neighbors don’t want it. In the cost benefit test that the board needs to use, this project would not benefit the town at all. The town needs to REJECT this application.
I guess the extra quarter mile walk up to the Green makes up for the availability of Starbucks, bagel shops, pizza and all the other unhealthy options for high school kids? Kind of a ridiculous argument. I would wager they are in just as much danger of getting hit by a car on the way into town as they are getting fat from Dunkin.
Great coverage, thank you