P&Z Commission Approves Route 32 Building Plans



The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the plans for a new building on Route 32, but they were anything but approving when it came to the design ideas for the building.

The building, a 7,200-square foot retail/office building on the corner of Route 32 and Golden Avenue, south of CVS, looks like "an old 1960s strip mall," Planner Marcia Vlaun said to the Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday. She said she had tried again and again to convince the owner, Halifax Realty, to change the look of the building but he could not be budged.

"Design criteria is not a basis that I can use to recommend denial," she said.

Members of the planning and zoning board agreed, seeming particularly dismayed at the prospect of a strip-mall-type building being put up, "especially on Route 32," said Chairman Alan Marcus.

The planning and zoning board is empowered to recommend design changes, Vlaun said, but that's it.

"If it's butt-ugly, it's butt-ugly," said Robert Baron. "We can't do anything about it."

Robert Schuch, representing Boundaries LLC, the engineering firm of the project, said that the owner has put up a number of buildings like the one planned for Route 32, and he likes them, partly because of the ease of maintaining them.

"We can't prevent ugly," said Baron. "And you can't fix stupid, either."