Wyckoff April 24, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 7 Suit filed against ShopRite, planning board by John Koster The Wyckoff Planning Board and Inserra ShopRite have been sued in Superior Court of New Jersey by Stop & Shop Supermarket Company and Munico, otherwise known as the Hekemian Company, which owns the land on which Stop & Shop sits. The two litigants want to have the court void the approvals that would make it possible for ShopRite to construct a new 62,174 square-foot supermarket on the long-vacant A&P site, just uphill from the Boulder Run complex where Stop & Shop is lcoated. “It’s not unexpected,” Wyckoff Mayor and planning board member Rudy Boonstra said of the appeal. “The unfortunate thing is that, in tight budgetary times, we now find ourselves budgeting money for the appeal.” Other Wyckoff officials acknowledged the suit, but refrained from comment. The Inserra Supermarket offices in Mahwah did not return a telephone call. The Wyckoff Planning Board had voted approval on the Inserra plan, as amended after a two-year hearing process, and about 80 percent of the Wyckoff residents who spoke at two public comment sessions said they approved of the concept of a second supermarket in Wyckoff. The remaining 20 percent were split between people who wanted a smaller store and those who wanted no supermarket at all. Many people at the hearings accused Stop & Shop of deliberately stalling and dragging out the hearings. The board unanimously approved the variances and the plan in November 2012 and approved the memorializing resolution in February. The 62-page appeal filed by Gail Price, an attorney for Stop & Shop, describes the history of the case. ShopRite has changed the facade of the supermarket and reduced the size somewhat based on requests from Wyckoff officials, who praised ShopRite’s representatives for their cooperative attitude. The appeal officially filed on March 26 in Superior Court takes issue with the fact that the original proposal indicated a building lot coverage of 64,974 square feet, but the planning board subsequently approved a building of just over 62,000 square feet. The appeal further objects to the planning board’s agreement that the area was zoned for a supermarket and asserts that the abandonment by the A&P more than 10 years ago voided the zoning of the site for supermarket use. Several residents had argued that the present vacant store and lot are an eyesore and supported the application by Inserra ShopRite for a store in that location. “The (planning) board improperly discounted the magnitude of the safety issues at play regarding pedestrians... and similarly disregarded conflicts in the site plan design that present significant on-site traffic safety problems for pedestrians and vehicles,” the appeal states. The appellants also object to the elimination of a requirement for a traffic light at Wyckoff Avenue and Greenwood Avenue; delivery truck access, which they claim is inadequate; and parking lot aisles, which they say are located at excessive distances from the store. The appeal seeks to have the variances granted by the Wyckoff Planning Board to be declared null and void, essentially sending the ShopRite application back to the drawing board. The plans, as approved, call for a new building to (continued on page 14)