{"id":10455,"date":"2017-02-23T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T06:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=10455"},"modified":"2017-02-23T01:00:40","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T06:00:40","slug":"raucous-meeting-over-new-brick-wawa-ends-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/02\/raucous-meeting-over-new-brick-wawa-ends-in-limbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Raucous Meeting Over New Brick Wawa Ends in Limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Plans<\/a>

Plans for a Wawa and quick-serve restaurant off Route 70 in Brick. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A three hour-long Board of Adjustment meeting on a developer\u2019s application to build\u00a0a Wawa and quick-serve restaurant near the corner of Route 70 and Duquesne Boulevard included arguing, shouts from the audience and a sign being taken from a protester.<\/p>\n

The developer, Paramount Realty Services, made its third appearance before the board Wednesday night, with a planner and engineers hired by the developer testifying to the merits of the project. But before all was said and done, an opposing attorney would stir the room into an uproar and draw nonstop rebukes from the board\u2019s own attorney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would submit to the board that the proposed program of development is exactly what Brick envisions in its master plan for the Route 70 corridor,\u201d said project planner Christine Cofone, responding to questions by the developer\u2019s attorney, John Jackson.<\/p>\n

Residents of the Lake Riviera neighborhood have come out against the project, voicing concern that traffic and noise from the Wawa and restaurant \u2013 potentially a Panera Bread \u2013 could increase, and draw more transients to local streets. Delivery trucks have become a particularly important issue for many of the residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would see the truck traffic having no impact on the residential neighborhood,\u201d said Cofone, testifying that both buildings in the project \u2013 the Wawa and restaurant \u2013 are squarely located in the business zone. Only parking areas and entranceways, she said, are located on its fringes, on a residential lot and an office-professional lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the residents have said that one of their chief concerns was traffic going through their neighborhood,\u201d said Board Chairman Harvey Langer, requesting the developer make an access point near the intersection of Duquesne Boulevard and Lake Shore Drive an \u201cin\u201d only, so traffic could not be routed out into the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the developer agreed to make the change to the project\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

But it was after that agreement was struck, and testimony ended, that the meeting turned contentious.<\/p>\n

Vincent Sanzone, a North Jersey attorney who is representing the interests of his parent\u2019s estate \u2013 their home sits adjacent\u00a0to the proposed development area \u2013 began aggressively cross-examining the developer\u2019s experts, often drawing shouts of \u201cobjection\u201d from\u00a0John P. Miller, the board\u2019s own attorney, who ruled many, if not most, of Sanzone\u2019s questions were \u201cirrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you have an opportunity to listen to the noise that the Costco gas station generates?\u201d he asked one engineer representing the developer. \u201cDid you make any observations whatsoever or did you not bother?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you think they\u2019ll be playing all kinds of crazy music, like rap music?\u201d he asked another witness, later using a piece of paper and the board dais as analogy for the thickness of a proposed eight foot-high sound wall that will be located behind the restaurant portion of the site.<\/p>\n

The project engineer conceded he did not know how thick the sound wall would be, but\u00a0Miller eventually cut Sanzone off, saying he did not allow the witness to answer the question at hand.<\/p>\n

At one point, Jackson told board members that Sanzone\u2019s interest was not for the good of the neighborhood, but to profit from selling the land to the developer. Sanzone said he offered Paramount a price of $400,000, which was turned down.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I have a vested interest\u201d in the property he said, motioning to the few dozen residents who came to hear the proceedings. \u201cSo do all of these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, yelling overcame the room with cheers for the attorney and jeers for board members trying to maintain control. At one point, Langer ordered a protest sign be taken from a woman who had been frequently\u00a0waving it in the air through much of the meeting. Another man stormed out of the room, shouting, \u201cQuality of life is down!\u201d in a loud voice. \u201cQuality of life is down and taxes are up!\u201d<\/p>\n

After the room calmed down, Sanzone\u2019s cross-examinations continued until no more witnesses remained. A previous witness who was no longer in the room was called by Sanzone, who then asked the proceedings be delayed until they could provide testimony on what they previously said. It was then that\u00a0Maurice Zekaria, president of Paramount, told board members that he believes Sanzone was trying to \u201cextort\u201d money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like he\u2019s extorting us, he\u2019s wasting our time,\u201d said Zekaria, adding that he believed Sanzone was \u201crude\u201d in an earlier meeting where a sale of the property was briefly discussed.<\/p>\n

Sanzone, in a powerful voice, responded to Zekaria.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an officer of the court and an attorney \u2026 whether or not I\u2019m asking for $150,000 or $1 million for the property doesn\u2019t have to do with anything,\u201d said Sanzone. \u201cThe property isn\u2019t for sale. I\u2019m buying the property myself. That property has been in my family since 1964. He\u2019s trying to discredit me because he doesn\u2019t want to be held to his proofs. He doesn\u2019t want to be cross-examined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because cross-examinations\u00a0have yet to end, there was no public comment period at the meeting. Members of the public are allowed to voice concerns and question witnesses only after the applicant and any opposing attorneys have completed their cases.<\/p>\n

The hearing\u00a0will resume March 8 at 7 p.m. at the township municipal complex.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A three hour-long Board of Adjustment meeting on a developer\u2019s application to build\u00a0a Wawa and quick-serve restaurant near the corner of Route 70 and Duquesne Boulevard included arguing, shouts from the audience and a sign being taken from a protester. The developer, Paramount Realty Services, made its third appearance before the board Wednesday night, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,2407,1273,2743,2562,272],"class_list":["post-10455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-duquesne-boulevard","tag-lake-riviera","tag-lake-shore-drive","tag-panera-bread","tag-wawa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_8724.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2ID","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}