Planners OK Rite Aid
BY VICTORIA HURLEY-SCHUBERT
Staff Writer

MARLBORO - A Rite Aid pharmacy on Route 79 south adjacent to the Bear Brook Commons shopping center has received Planning Board approval.

The pharmacy is being developed by David Steiner and Martin Heller, owners of the Bear Brook Commons, said attorney Ron Gasiorowski, of Red Bank, who represented the applicant.

The board voted to approve the project at its April 18 meeting.

Bear Brook Commons is at the intersection of Route 79 and Route 520.

The developers have purchased the lot which is just south of Bear Brook Commons, said Nicholas Read, a design engineer with Bohler Engineering, of Warren. He did not know the selling price. The existing house on the property is being used for emergency personnel training, said Read, and will be demolished to make room for the 14,564-square-foot pharmacy and 73 parking spaces.

The two homes next to Bear Brook Commons are pre-existing, nonconforming uses for the land, which is zoned commercial, said Dennis Collins, the Planning Board's attorney.

A landscape buffer will be installed between an existing home that is not part of the development and the new store.

The free-standing Rite Aid will have a drive-up pharmacy window, a one-hour photo lab and a food mart, said Read.

There will be one full access driveway to serve the pharmacy with cross access to Bear Brook Commons for car traffic, said Read.

One tractor-trailer will be permitted to make deliveries to the pharmacy between 5-7 a.m. one day per week with no engine idling, said Read. The loading dock will be on the south side of the store and screened from residential units on the south, he added.

"It's a very classy looking operation, it's got a lot of landscaping, it's well set back from the street," Read said.

The parking lot will begin about 30 feet from the curb and the building will be set back 100 feet from the street.

"We are proposing, per township requirements, a row of street trees 11 feet from the right of way line," Read said, adding that all trees that may be removed during construction will be replaced.

A brook in the back of the property will not be affected by the construction or operation of the Rite Aid, said Read.

The building and parking will cover about 25 percent of the 5.7-acre lot. A storm water management basin will be located in the back of the lot.

The shoulder of Route 79 south will be widened along the frontage of the Rite Aid to match Bear Brook Commons, said Read. Shoppers will be permitted by the state Department of Transportation to make a left turn out of the new plaza.

The board granted a variance for an additional 20 square feet of signs than what is permitted by ordinance.

Sidewalks will be installed along the frontage of the Rite Aid property.

"There are a lot of Marlboro High School kids who transverse this property," said Peter Bellone, the board's vice chairman.

The high school is also on Route 79 south, a short distance from where the Rite Aid will be constructed.