After three tries and numerous tweaks to façades, cornices and trim colors, 7-Eleven on Thursday won unanimous planning board approval to build a convenience store at the corner of Morris and Pine streets, the present site of an Exxon station in Morristown.
But a developer keen on erecting a brick-faced office/residential building in the town’s Historic District got six virtual thumbs-down.
After hearing dueling arguments laced with legal arcana, board members huddled offline for a few minutes…and then punted. They rejected an application for 66 Maple Ave. from Festivus Industries LLC of Mountain Lakes “without prejudice.”
Meaning, the matter could return to the planning board– if that is indeed where it belongs.
“My proposal would be to deny this, without prejudice, so that would enable the applicant to go to the zoning board for interpretation, or seek another remedy for moving forward,” said board Chairman Joe Stanley.
It was a victory for objectors who live across Maple Avenue in luxury condos built by real estate executive and philanthropist Finn Wentworth. Their lawyer, Glenn Pantel, contended the Festivus project violates the MX-1 zone.
That requires a use variance from the zoning board, Pantel said. Use variances are difficult and costly to obtain.
An MX-1 zone allows four types of buildings: Detached, semi-attached, estates, and townhomes, Pantel explained. The Festivus proposal — a pair of two-bedroom units on the first floor, with offices on the second story– “fails by a million miles” to fit any of those categories.
“It is totally inconsistent with the purposes of the ordinance, which are to preserve the character of the MX-1 neighborhood, to preserve the architectural history of the town of Morristown, to have development which is compatible with the existing character of the neighborhood,” he said.
Peter Wolfson, representing Robert Pagano of Festivus, argued that imposing such a “stringent” interpretation of town zoning ordinances “would flood the zoning board with applications, and subject property owners to a process that would make even a minor project a major undertaking. And it would incorrectly displace this board of its rightful jurisdiction over many, many applications.”
The objectors found an ally in the town’s Historic Preservation Commission.
This project “would do irreversible damage to the character of Maple Avenue,” commission Chairman Ken Miller, a resident of the Historic District, wrote in a letter to the planning board.
Festivus proposes razing a two-and-a-half story Second Empire wooden structure dating to 1868. The entrance to the new building would front Miller Road, not Maple Avenue, which is lined with stately Victorian homes that have been converted to a mix of professional offices and apartments over the years.
Across Miller Road, the property faces the stone rectory of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church; the parking lot abuts the Morristown & Township Library, which would fit in nicely on the campus of Princeton University.
Although the house targeted for demolition is not designated as historic, its neighborhood is: Morristown’s Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Historic Preservation Commission letter described the Festivus project as an “inappropriate design” and “a significant intrusion into the Historic District” that needlessly destroys an architectural resource, and violates the town’s land development ordinance.
Wolfson and Pantel each were given 10 minutes to summarize legal briefs submitted earlier this month.
Characterizing the jurisdictional question “as somewhat of a novel issue for us,” Stanley said the board had reached consensus about not reaching consensus.
“We didn’t necessarily feel that there was an overwhelming preponderance of facts that would sway us one way or the other,” he said.
Mayor Tim Dougherty, Joe Kane, Debra Gottsleben, Gilbert Carpeta and Andrea Lekberg joined Stanley in voting to reject the application.
‘IT MAY SEEM ARDUOUS’
The 7-Eleven got its approval in a matter of minutes on Thursday — after hours of hearings in February, March and April, and behind-the-scenes negotiations with town planners.
It’s a relocation of a 7-Eleven in a strip mall across Morris Street that must be demolished to make way for the M Station office redevelopment.
With an eye toward future development along Morris Street, town Planner Phil Abramson had pushed for a more upscale design for the 47 Pine St. store; Mayor Dougherty challenged developers to create “the best 7-Eleven in New Jersey.”
Plans for second-story offices were dropped, among many other revisions. Stanley thanked 7-Eleven attorney Jason Tuvel and his team for working closely with the town.
“I know sometimes it may seem arduous, but I think that it’s resulted in a much nicer product. I wish you many, many years of success in in Morristown.”
Disclosure: The reporter lives in Historic District.
Agree with Ken Miller, this building faces Maple Ave. and not Miller RD. and is consistent with the toher buildings on this Street. Scale is important, as Morristown learned when they introduced the Headquarters Plaza project and suffered from its negative impact on that entire area for many years.
This will be the best 7-11 in nj for about two minutes. Then the homeless, drunks from the bars, loud cars, drug deals, trash and delivery trucks will take over and that intersection/area will be a disaster.
66 Maple is designated in the Historic District nomination as “contributing”, which legally equates to being listed. A District nomination occurs when multiple structures within the bounds are eligible and qualified to be added to the state and national register – 66 Maple met that threshold, hence is considered “listed”