A 13,057-square-foot CVS pharmacy will be constructed at Route 537 at Redwood Lane, Freehold Township, following the approval of a development application by the Freehold Township Planning Board.
In a 6-0 vote at a recent meeting, board Chairman Rich Gatto and board members Leon Bruno Jr., John Bazzurro, Rob Kash, Robert Shortmeyer and Mayor Thomas Cook directed the board’s attorney to prepare a positive resolution for First Hartford Realty Corporation (CVS), the applicant, and Freehold Realty Associates, the owner of the property.
The resolution will be memorialized by the board at an upcoming meeting.
Attorney Gerald Sonnenblick represented the applicant and presented testimony from professionals who described the building and improvements planned for the site.
Engineer Douglas Grysko, representing the applicant, said the CVS will face a neighboring TD Bank and have access from Route 537 and from a road to be constructed into the pharmacy’s 7-acre site from Redwood Lane.
Technical requirements call for 118 parking spaces to be provided at the CVS, but the applicant requested a waiver and will provide 64 parking spaces. Township professionals and board members did not object to the applicant’s request for fewer parking spaces.
New sidewalks will be constructed on Redwood Lane and on Route 537 to facilitate pedestrian access to the pharmacy, Grysko said. He said a storm water detention basin that complies with municipal requirements will be constructed. The CVS will be served by public water and sewer systems.
Attorney Allen Kaplan, who represents Jason Maldonado, of Buttonwood Lane, took issue with the applicant’s depiction of a wooded area between his client’s home and the existing TD Bank and the planned CVS pharmacy. Kaplan requested that trees be planted behind his client’s home.
Sonnenblick initially said no to that request, but after a short recess he said his client would plant 6- to 8-foot-tall evergreen trees in the area where Maldonado requested them to be placed.
Township Engineer Tim White concurred with the resolution to the situation Sonnenblick put forth on behalf of his client, and Kaplan and Maldonado accepted that offer.
When the new CVS opens, the company will close the pharmacy it has operated for many years in the Raintree Village shopping center directly across Route 537 from where the new pharmacy will be built, according to Sonnenblick.
The applicant’s professionals said road improvements will include the widening of Redwood Lane at the intersection with Route 537, the creation of a dedicated left turn lane from Redwood Lane to Route 537 west, plus pedestrian improvements.
Left turns from the CVS pharmacy to Route 537 west will not be permitted, according to the testimony. Left turns from Route 537 west into the CVS site will be permitted. Right and left turns will be permitted at the Redwood Lane driveway.
Sonnenblick and the board members could not reach an agreement on the number and type of signs that will be installed on the CVS building and property. Sonnenblick will return in the future to discuss the signs and two awnings his client is proposing on the new pharmacy.
“A lot of time was spent on this project,” Gatto said. “It is a transition area, a sensitive area” between a commercial zone on Route 537 and the residential zone off Redwood Lane.
— Contact Mark Rosman at gmntnews@gmnews.com
