HOWELL – In a unanimous vote, the Planning Board approved the application of Allaire Road, LLC to upgrade and repurpose the existing structure at 137 Allaire Road to a warehouse and small showroom.
Speaking before the Board on April 5, attorney Dante Alfieri presented his client’s case without the use of even one exhibit or display as the Board listened to the proposed changes that would be enacted at the site. Alfieri did not enlist the professional presentations of any planners, traffic experts or engineers, and relied solely on submitted documents and the testimony of owner Chumi Itzkowitz. The plan calls for the conversion of the current building located at 137 Allaire Road into a structure that would function as a warehouse and showroom. The showroom area would be a place for wholesale customers to view new products. No retail sales to the general public would be done at the site.
The Board heard the testimony of Itzkowitz, the applicant owner of Allaire Road, LLC. During her questioning by Alfieri and the Board, Itzkowitz informed the members that the site would receive box truck deliveries throughout the day from parcel companies such as UPS and Federal Express, as well as U.S. Postal Service deliveries, but that the exiting traffic for shipments from the warehouse would be done at the end of the business day. The proposed hours of operation would be Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with shortened hours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays. Itzkowitz testified that there be almost no weekends when the site would be active, unless it was a busy season.
One point of contention that was raised by the Board was with regard to vehicles parked on the site overnight, when it was revealed that the company did expect to get “quarterly” shipments from China that would require a delivery vehicle such as a tractor trailer hauling a container to the site. However, the applicant advised that in that case the vehicle would be at the site for two days while it was unloaded, which satisfied the Board members.
The company to occupy the space will only have 12 employees. Seven of the employees are office workers, and the remaining five would be laborers that loaded and unloaded shipments.
Almost no changes would be made to the building’s exterior other than to improve the existing façade and change the current signage. There are no plans to build a loading dock for container deliveries, and the only change to the exterior would be to mark the delivery area clearly with striping and update the fire lanes currently at the location.
“I think that the site could use a little love,” said Township Planner Jennifer Beahm, in support of the project. “So, I’m happy to see somebody coming in and cleaning it up.”
No new exterior lighting was being proposed for the site, and in exchange for the approval of the Board, the applicant advised that there would be no external storage at the property and agreed to keep trash inside the building until pick up by licensed sanitation services.
