A mixed-use building at the corner of Church Street and West Grand Avenue will get a streamlined facelift, including a mural and several new apartments, under a proposal approved by the Planning Board.
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After about an hour of testimony and questions at its Sept. 24 meeting, the Planning Board unanimously approved a site plan application with bulk C variances. Hackensack-based attorney John Veteri represented the applicant, 1670 Church St., LLC of Cranford, with testimony from architect Adam Lasota of Lasota Architects in Philadelphia and Thomas Stearns III of Garfield-based GB Engineering.
The building at 1670 Church St. also uses an address of 564-568 W. Grand Ave. and is home to two retail tenants that would remain active during construction: Nunzio’s Trattoria II and Bryan’s Barber Shop. The site is approximately 8,800 square feet, or 0.2 acres, with 110 feet along Church Street and 80 feet fronting West Grand.
The building is two stories at the corner, one story for the pizza shop, with a three-story structure in the back that includes an existing four-bedroom apartment. There’s also a two-bedroom unit for a total of two apartments.
“We’re trying to homogenize and make it look not so – for lack of a better word – chopped up,” Lasota testified. “It’s almost as if this property was built up in different phases.” Changes to the West Grand facade would make it appear as one building rather than a “conglomeration of many different phases.”
The proposal would keep the footprint of the existing building and add additions to the second and third floors of the two front buildings, for a total of five apartments: the existing four-bedroom, along with three two-bedrooms, and one one-bedroom. The current two-bedroom would become a one-bedroom and the second-floor addition above the pizzeria would be a two-bedroom, along with one studio apartment.
The addition will be just about a full story, so they’re proposing a variance for three stories but made sure to fall within the 35-foot limit, at 31 feet, Lasota said.
Planning Board Planner McKinley Mertz said ground-floor and four-bedroom apartments are both conditions not allowed in the West Grand Overlay Zone but agreed that they’re longtime pre-existing, nonconforming uses and they’re not changing units in any way.
The application also proposes a mural on the west side of the building. As a condition of the application’s approval, the applicant would have to get the mural approved by the city administration since the word Rahway is expected to appear in the final version.
Parking
Striped parking currently provides 12 spaces though it’s “a little tight on the site,” and some spaces are over the property line, Stearns said. The lot will be re-striped for 11 spaces. Two electric vehicle (EV) spaces will be provided — including one handicapped space, which the site did not have previously — which qualifies for one parking space credit, reducing the required number to 13.
The ordinance requires a 5-foot buffer with the property line for parking. A variance is requested to keep parking an existing non-conforming condition. Board Attorney Karl Kemm said the parking variance is because the applicant is looking for flexibility if the type of tenant changes. It would be limited to permitted use in the zone that the parking variance would apply to. The existing uses are allowed in the zone.
Board member Al Shipley asked the applicant whether they think they have enough parking. “With the size of these units, it’s not a massive scale. Most units really will only require one parking space,” Veteri said, and there is also “plenty of street parking,” with parking allowed only one side of Church Street, abutting the property.
Board member Karla Timmons suggested assigning residential parking and recommended signage indicating parking for customers only, otherwise the site might be overrun with parking for other uses, such as a nearby church. Shared parking is more efficient, which is the benefit of a mixed-used building, Veteri said.
The applicant originally suggested limited parking hours from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. As a condition of approval, signage for five spaces (one for each unit) would indicate tenant only parking from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m., allowing for use by retail customers.
Circulation would remain the same: a one-way entrance on West Grand Avenue with angled parking. A 48-foot drop curb at the rear of the property on Church allows for two-way entry/exit up to the garage for five parking spaces. A trash and recycling area would be added next to the garage with cans that would be taken to Church Street for pickup. The garage is currently used for storage and will remain that way to keep flexibility for tenants.
The property last sold for $590,000 in January 2022, according to property records. It’s assessed for $131,500, including $92,700 for land and $224,200 for improvements, generating property taxes of about $16,032.54.
Editor’s note: This post was based on an audio recording and review of minutes of the Sept. 24 Planning Board meeting.
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