Route 17 Businesses Get Zoning Board OK for Facelift

A small cluster of businesses on Route 17 South will get a facelift soon.

Zoning Board members granted unanimous approval last Thursday after hearing three hours of testimony regarding plans from Three Buildings LLC to revamp its parking area, redesign one of the three commercial buildings on its property and also improve vehicle access to and from the highway, according to a taped recording of the meeting which Patch obtained from the borough.

The property is home to Quest Fitness, Heights Beer & Wine Emporium, Jump On In and Kiddie World Furniture. The building at the front of the property, which currently houses Kiddie World, will be modified and scaled back to create more uniformity with the other buildings on the site, explained Carl Mazzie of Three Buildings LLC.

The newly redesigned  building will have space for three commercial tenants which may include Petco, 7-Eleven and a cycle wear shop which have leases with Three Buildings LLC according to Mazzie.

Part of the plans include paving over the north western end of the property which faces the VFW Hall on Veterans Place creating more parking spaces. Overall there will be 54 parking spots added to the property as a result of the redesign.

The parking and landscape plan has been designed to improve traffic flow, said those that testified. Currently there is access to the property from anywhere off Route 17 but the newly designed entrance will allow vehicles to enter and exit at the middle of the property just south of Quest Fitness by way of a two-way road. There will be one additional one-way entrance at the south end of the property.

Discussion included the possibility of opening up an access road through the north side of the property from Third Street, which is an unpaved area next to the VFW, however Zoning Board members believed this use would likely be used by drivers as a cut-through forcing more traffic through the residential neighborhood.

It was instead decided that if the borough were to ever pave this roadway that the property owner work with the borough’s fire department to create an emergency vehicle-only access to the property.

Area residents who live on Webb Place were concerned about lighting from the property shining into their homes as their street is elevated by about 30 to 40 feet as it’s up on a cliff just west of the property. The property owner’s engineer Daniel LaMothe said the lighting design will be made to project light downward therefore there will be will be no light spillage directed towards the neighboring residential area.

'Like' Hasbrouck Heights Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.