Route 70 Wawa Hearing Continued To March In Brick

BRICK, NJ — Concerned residents who were hoping to voice their opinions on a proposal to build a Wawa at the corner of Route 70 and Duquesne Boulevard in Brick will have to wait until March. At least.

A special meeting of the Brick Township Board of Adjustment on Wednesday that was devoted to the application by Brick 70 Developers, the applicant proposing to build the Wawa and a "quick-serve" restaurant at the site, dragged on for more than three hours and turned rowdy at times as residents grow increasingly impatient with the wait to speak out.

"I apologize," Harvey Langer, the zoning board chairman, said as he tried to set a date to continue the hearing on the application. "Because of the size of the application, I can't condense it. That wouldn't be fair to the applicant and that wouldn't be fair to the residents of Lake Riviera."

The next meeting — another special meeting for the Route 70 Wawa project only — will be at 7 p.m. March 8 at the municipal building.

Langer's comments came in response to grumbling by many of those in attendance who had hoped to speak Wednesday night but were delayed while opposing attorney Vincent Sanzone questioned the developer's experts for more than two hours.

Sanzone, a tax attorney who practices in Elizabeth and is representing the estate of his parents, Vincent and Kathleen, whose home is at the corner of North Lake Shore Drive and directly abuts the Wawa site, asked repeatedly about the size, thickness and material of a proposed sound wall and the amount of noise that should be expected from trucks at the site. Sanzone was repeatedly interruptions from board attorney John Miller and Langer, who both tried to get Sanzone to clarify his questions and get to the point he was trying to make.

"What is it you're trying to ask," Langer said to Sanzone at one point, "because even I didn't understand the question."

As residents seated in the audience became more frustrated, some held up signs saying, "Save Our Neighborhood," sparking a rebuke from Langer, who told the police officer monitoring the hearing to collect the signs. That prompted one man to get up and leave, shouting angrily, "This is about quality of life!" "Quality of life is going down, and taxes are going up!" he shouted, as he walked out.

Another resident, angry over the wait to speak accused Langer of showing bias toward the applicant's attorney, John Jackson, because Langer was addressing Jackson — who represents a number of developers and is before the zoning board frequently — and some of the experts associated with the application by their first names.

"People have jobs," the resident said. "We've wasted six hours and still don't get to speak."

Langer said the board is bound by state laws that set out how zoning board hearings must be conducted.

"Everyone is allowed to speak," Langer said. "We have an objecting attorney. When he's done, the public will be allowed to speak."

When Sanzone will finish his cross examination of the developer's experts is not clear. But it is likely there will be more fireworks, after Jackson accused Sanzone of a conflict of interest, saying Sanzone was trying to get the developer to buy the property for significantly more than it was worth.

The property had been on the market recently; a listing on realtor.com shows it as off the market, but includes 30 photos of the property. It isn't clear when it was taken off the market.

Jackson said Sanzone had contacted Paramount Realty Services prior to the first zoning board hearing on the application, a charge Sanzone denied.

Maurice Zekaria, president of Paramount Realty Services, which is the firm behind Brick 70 Developers, testified at the end of the meeting that the Sanzone property had been listed for sale for $300,000 and that Paramount offered less than that. He said he spoke with Sanzone at the first zoning board meeting, and that Sanzone was "very rude" and demanded $400,000 for the property. The property is assessed at $272,000 according to realtor.com.

"He's extorting us, he's wasting our time," Jackson said, drawing an angry response from Sanzone, who declared he is buying the property from the estate and "whether I'm asking for $100,000 or $1 million is my business."

Sanzone, who was seeking to question representatives from Wawa and who was seeking guarantees about the times when deliveries of gasoline and store products would be made, will likely continue his questioning at the March 8 board hearing. It's not clear how many more questions he will have or whether he will present experts to testify to some of the items he has raised as concerns.

Photo by Karen Wall