July 17, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 9 Midland Park Team is tops The Midland Park Bagel Emporium received permission last week to move from its present location at the Sears shopping center to the Midland Park Shopping Center across the street. The bagel shop, which has been at its present location for 20 years, will lose its lease there as of July 31, according to attorney Bruce Rosenberg. Rosenberg asked that the owner be allowed to begin work on the new location before the memorializing resolution is approved next month because of the lease restriction. He was told the owner could do so at his own risk, should there be any problems with the board’s final approval. The 1,320 sq. ft. shop was previously occupied by Broth- Bagel shop to relocate to former Brothers Pizza site ers Pizza, which moved to a larger location next door and is now trading as Pizzaiolo by Brothers. Midland Park Bagel needed a parking variance because the location had been classified in the shopping center’s site plan as a retail use, which would have required 19 spaces, and would now be used as a quick-service restaurant, which requires 24. Engineer Andrew Missey said it had seemed appropriate to classify Bagel Emporium as a quick-service establishment because “it’s hard to stay in a bagel store more than 15 minutes.” Owner Robert Shorr proposes to provide three tables with seating for 10 patrons. Midland Park third/fourth grade girls softball recently won the Park Ridge Tournament. The tournament featured 10 local teams with the Midland Park Panthers coming out as champions. Standing: Bianca Caprio, Emma Mercadante, Julia Calderone, Olivia Calderone, Emma Douma, Anna Amos, Jessie Balala, Elizabeth Albarella, and Carolyn McCourt. Kneeling: Shannon Garrett, Amanda Dembowski, Katie Chirkis, Grace Gallagher, Sydney Cieri, Gemma Rosso, and Brandi Shortway. Coaches: Faith Douma, Laurie Ten Kate, and Brian McCourt. In making the motion for approval, board member Doug Feick said the fewer spaces would not pose a hardship because the bagel shop’s hours of operation would not be the same as the peak hours of the other tenants in the shopping center. The applicant’s traffic expert, Hal Simoff, had testified that between 7 and 9 a.m., the bagel’s shop’s busiest hours, only 25 of the 45 spaces available in that area of the shopping center were occupied. Pizzaiolo does not open until 11 a.m. Missey had said during testimony on the application that the shopping center’s owners are planning site improvements unrelated to this application which would add three spaces to the 504 existing slots by consolidating the refuse area. The board also needed to rule on whether the bagel shop could go in the proposed location, which is next to Starbucks and in close proximity to Pizzaiola and Subway. The borough’s zoning ordinance does not permit restaurants or quick service restaurants within 200 feet of each other and classifies them as permitted conditional uses in the shopping center. The board specified that the business could only operate during the designated hours, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and until 2 p.m. on Sunday. Any change would require board approval.