Majority Supports ShopRite At Planning Board Public Comment Session

Vocal Wyckoff residents overwhelmingly — though not unanimously — threw their support behind a proposal to build a ShopRite here during an open forum that took place  after nearly two years of expert testimony and legal argument before the township planning board.  

Of the more than 100 attendees at the planning board meeting only 18 went to the microphone during the public comment session, but of those 18 Wyckoff residents, 11 spoke in support of the Inserra application, five spoke against the application, and two said their reasons for speaking were not to voice a pure up or down vote for the plan. 

That figures to be about 61 percent in support of the Inserra Supermarket application that proposes to build a 62,000 square foot ShopRite beside an existing .

Among those against the application were Angelita De Silva and Jim Palumbo. Both residents expressed concerns about the negative impact the massive supermarket could have on their homes. 

"When Boulder Run was built my neighbors on both sides experienced cracked foundations and cracked patios," Palumbo told the board. "My question is who will now be responsible for any other collateral damage to our properties resulting from construction?"

Palumbo's home is located on Lawrence Court, a small distance from the propsed supermarket site on Greenwood Avenue.  

De Silva said that worsening traffic over the years has caused her home to literally shake and granting the Inserra application would make things worse.

"I've had pictures fall off the wall," Wyckoff resident Angelita De Silva said. "If this application is granted... it will have an impact that will structurally affect my property."

Wyckoff resident Jim Donkersloot, who said he lives within walking distance of the proposed supermarket, said the business would be preferable to bringing in apartments or smaller shops at the currently vacant Greenwood Avenue lot. 

"The project will add jobs, give consumers a choice and bring a new awareness to the other shops in town and on Main Street," said Donkersloot, who serves on the township's zoning board of adjustments. 

Donkersloot also knocked the "small vocal minority" opposing the Inserra plan, saying their opinions didn't accurately represent those of the township.

Bergen County Republican Organization Chair Robert Yudin stepped up to the microphone Monday night claiming that for more than 40 years in Wyckoff no one had observed traffic in the area more closely than he.  

"If we're to believe Stop & Shop [when it comes to traffic], I have a bridge to sell you," said Yudin. 

Yudin, a former Wyckoff Planning Board vice chairman and owner of on Main Street, said nearby businesses had benefited from the stores that once occupied the Greenwood Avenue lot. 

"[Opponents] are trying to tell you that the one ShopRite is going to overwhelm the area with traffic... it's bogus," Yudin said. "I believe Stop & Shop is against this for one reason and one reason only: They don't want competition, everything else is subterfuge and smoke."

Among those that spoke, but didn't give the ShopRite plan a clear up or down vote was resident Eugene Lipkowitz, who stressed that the planning board should begin to include easier pedestrian access between shopping centers. 

"We tend to push people into cars... and I think there is some room to encourage people to do more walking, to make the town a little more pedestrian friendly," he said.

Without clearly illustrating his preference regarding the Inserra application, Lipkowitz suggested that planners refrain from "insisting that at the edge of each property, a hedgerow or a set of bushes or a little hillock be constructed to make it easier for a mountain goat" to travel from one shopping center to the next.

Wyckoff Planning Board Attorney Joseph Perconti said that Monday's comments would not be the public's final opportunity to speak up regarding the Inserra application.

"There will be another public hearing to address the testimony before it goes to a vote with the board," Perconti said. "We will hear you again."

Earlier in the meeting the Wyckoff Planning Board of the firm Dolan and Dean.

Didn't get to make it out to the Wyckoff Planning Board meeting Monday night? Tell us if you think ShopRite should come to town in the comments below. 

In February, and 82 percent of respondents voted in favor of the application.