Zoning Board Rejects Proposal For Coffee Roasting Facility In Princeton

PRINCETON, NJ — The Princeton Zoning Board recently rejected the application for a coffee roasting facility in town.

Sakrid Coffee was seeking to open a new outlet on Witherspoon Street which would include a coffee roaster in the facility.

The Zoning Board approved the application for the coffee shop, but declined the application for the roasting facility, during a lengthy meeting held on June 28.

Sakrid already has an existing location on the corner of Nassau and Chambers Street.

The owners of Sakrid have a coffee roasting location in Moonachie and were hoping to eliminate trips by operating a facility in Princeton.

However, residents had expressed concern over the facility, which is close to Community Park Elementary School, would release volatile organic compounds into the air and create an unpleasant smell.

During past meetings, Sakrid had brought in many experts to testify that the roasting process would not be harmful to the environment or residents.

However, the Zoning Board finally denied the application based on whether they could allow a manufacturing use in a commercial district, where it’s not permitted.

“It’s not our place to create a variance for this type of thing. It’s the municipality’s place to change the zoning,” Board chair Steven Cohen said.

When a representative from Sakrid asked why a bakery was not considered manufacturing, Zoning Officer Derek Bridger said: “The conversion of wheat to flour is manufacturing, flour to bread is baking. That’s the most basic definition of manufacturing – taking a raw material and making it something else.”

George Stein introduced a motion to approve the application with conditions like limiting the number of hours and times of roasting. The motion failed 4-3.

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