Mahwah October 10, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 7 Hearing on Route 17 service station postponed by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Board of Adjustment has postponed the public hearing of ADPP Enterprises’ application for approval to renovate an existing automobile service station on northbound Route 17. The case will resume on Oct. 17. The site is located at the intersection of Moffatt Road and across the highway from the Pilot truck and automobile fueling station. The public hearing was scheduled for the zoning board’s last public meeting in September, but was postponed because the applicant’s published notice about the meeting listed the wrong start time. The board decided to postpone the public hearing when several residents complained about the notice, claiming some other residents who wanted to attend the public meeting went home before it started. The subject property contains several non-conforming conditions that currently exist on the service station site, which is located in the township’s B-40 highway business zone. The site is currently used as a Mobil gas station with three double-sided pump stations and two repair bays. ADPP wants to continue to use the property as a gas station with the addition of a convenience store. The application calls for the demolition of an existing one-story building and shed on the lot and the construction of the 1,560 square foot store, a canopy over the fuel tank islands on the lot, a retaining wall at the southeast corner of the property near Moffatt Road, and parking lot improvements with a new internal traffic layout, and other site improvements. The application also contains requests for several variances for setback deficiencies and for a wall sign with text height greater than what is currently permitted. The applicant claims the non-conforming conditions currently exist on the site and none of the improvements would exacerbate those conditions. According to Boswell McClave Engineering, the township’s engineering firm, ADPP must provide testimony to the zoning board on the proposed demolition and construction, the proposed traffic circulation and parking improvements, the number of employees at the site during the maximum work shift, the number of employee parking spaces planned for the site, the material to be stored on the site, and the garbage to be generated by the new service station. Service stations are permitted in the B40 zone as a conditional use, but Boswell has advised the board that the applicant must confirm that their plan conforms to the township’s ordinance that prohibits gas stations or vehicular repair shops from locating within 500 feet of schools, playgrounds, churches, hospitals, public libraries, or institutions for dependent children. That ordinance also states that vehicular access to the site cannot be closer to the intersection of two street lot lines than 50 feet and a gas pump cannot be located within 30 feet of a street lot line.