Potbelly and Woodhouse Spa Planned for Midland Park, N.J., Shopping Center; Owner Seeks 43-Space Parking Variance
MIDLAND PARK, N.J. — A Potbelly Sandwich Works and a Woodhouse Spa are proposed for the Midland Park Shopping Center, and the center's owner is asking the Zoning Board of…
MIDLAND PARK, N.J. — A Potbelly Sandwich Works and a Woodhouse Spa are proposed for the Midland Park Shopping Center, and the center’s owner is asking the Zoning Board of Adjustment to let them open without adding the parking the borough code requires.
The board will hear the application at a special meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Council Chambers at Borough Hall, 280 Godwin Ave., according to the agenda and application packet the borough posted.
What’s proposed
UB Midland Park I LLC, the applicant, is asking for a bulk/parking variance for the center at 85 Godwin Ave. (Block 3, Lot 11, B-3 zone). According to the application:
- Woodhouse Spa would take about 6,300 square feet once used by Hudson Valley Bank, AT&T and GameStop.
- Potbelly would take about 2,500 square feet, the former Wholesale Photo space. A Potbelly floor plan cited by the board engineer shows 36 seats.
- No construction outside the stores is proposed. The engineer’s review describes it as a parking variance for new tenants of existing interior space only.
The parking numbers
According to the application’s addendum, the zoning officer found that:
- The bank and retail uses in the spa space required 37 parking spaces, and the spa would require 59.5, a shortfall of 22.5.
- The old retail use in the Potbelly space required 12 spaces, and the sandwich shop would require 32, a shortfall of 20.
- The two shortfalls add up to 42.5 spaces, and the application asks for a variance from “the additional 43 spaces required.”
In an Oct. 20 review letter, board engineer Richard Wostbrock & Associates said that, based on the stated building areas, uses and a mixed-use reduction, it agrees the ordinance requires 627 spaces for the whole center, where 503 (it also wrote “505?”) exist. The firm asked the applicant to verify the existing stall count, noting that part of the north lot appears to have been restriped with diagonal parking. It also said the board “should determine whether a formal parking study is warranted.”
The engineer recommended that the board consider the application administratively complete, since no site changes are proposed and an approved site plan is on file. The letter also says comments should be requested from police, the fire department and other borough offices.
Who’s involved
The applicant lists an address in Bronxville, N.Y., and the borough’s tax certification lists Regency Centers as the property owner. Regency’s leasing page for the center lists Kings, Crunch Fitness and Petco among its tenants. Attorney Bruce R. Rosenberg of Winne Banta Basralian & Kahn in Hackensack represents the applicant. In an Oct. 16 cover letter, he wrote that a borough official would issue denial letters for both tenants, which sends the matter to the Zoning Board. The engineer’s letter lists those denials as dated Oct. 14.
The application is pending. The board has not voted.
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