Zoning Approves Cumberland Farms Expansion

The zoning commission approved a project Tuesday that will expand the Cumberland Farms on the corner of West Broad Street and Linden Avenue, in hopes that an augmented parking lot will clear up traffic congestion at the gas station and intersection.

“This is one of the busiest Cumberland Farms in the Northeast,” Benjamin Proto, a Stratford attorney representing the company, told the commission during a public hearing last night. “The traffic area will greatly improve with these changes.”

Proto said the expansion project -- which will take about 12 weeks and be completed sometime next spring -- will add another entryway/exit on Linden Avenue; two pumps with four gas dispensers; about 15 parking spots; and 1,012 square feet of building to the convenience store. The additions will be constructed on an untended 15,000-square-foot lot adjacent to the gas station on Linden Avenue, he said.

[A blueprint of the project is attached to this article as a PDF.]

“The primary purpose is parking,” Proto said of the project. With the current setup, there are not only conflicts between vehicles, but between vehicles and pedestrians, he said. With this plan, motorists who are filling up at the pump will be separated from pedestrians who only need access to the convenience store, Proto said.

Before the project was passed during the commission’s administrative session, which followed the public hearing, some commissioners and a local lawyer questioned if the plan would actually curb traffic and not further complicate congestion at the intersection off of the I-95 exit 32 interchange.

“I only go there to use the air pump,” commissioner Michael Henrick said during the public hearing. He said that the pumps are still going to be packed and draw a long queue even with an expanded lot.

Project manager Mark Vertucci countered Henrick’s claim, saying the new entryway/exit on Linden Avenue will provide for better traffic flow in and around the Cumberland Farms, because it’s more removed from the West Broad Street intersection than the one currently in place on Linden Avenue, which will still be there after the expansion. 

The third entrance/exit to the gas station is on West Broad Street, and it prohibits exiting left. Proto said the new site with an additional exit route may alleviate that frustration for drivers.

Recently, the lot adjacent to the one in which Cumberland Farms will be expanding was approved for a three-story office building. Daniel Shepro is a lawyer who said he will have an office in that building, which will start construction within a year. He was the only member of the public to speak at the hearing.

“We are very concerned they are creating a nightmare with two exits right near each other,” Shepro said of the project after the public hearing. “It’s a bad plan.”

The commission passed the expansion plan by a 4-1 vote, with Robert Connolly casting the only nay vote.

Has your commute ever been hindered by traffic at the intersection of West Broad Street and Linden Avenue? Do you support this project? Tell us in the comments section below.