BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
EMERSON, N.J.—Westwood residents who lodged a complaint against the borough in Superior Court last November have to wait a little while longer for what is shaping up to be a repeal of an ordinance that’s even had Emerson residents steamed.
The Emerson Land Use Board tabled its hearing on an ordinance the Borough Council seeks in order to finish repealing the drive-thru ordinance, 1513, which originated in the 2015 Master Plan review and allowed Starbucks in on Kinderkamack Road with a drive-thru.
Prior to the ordinance adoption in 2016, drive-in restaurants were expressly forbidden.
Westwood residents who live just across the town line mobilized after a Wendy’s with extended hours, a drive-thru, and variance requests was requested at Emerson Plaza, 411 Old Hook Road at Main Street.
Emerson’s new governing body corrected the ordinance as one of its first acts—the measure had not been noticed as required—and then set about repealing it.
Had the borough planner been able to attend the Land Use Board meeting March 7, it’s likely that board would have found the repeal is consistent with the Master Plan and returned it to the council with its blessing.
The hearing is reset for March 21. The soonest it can rejoin the mayor and council for their second vote, making it official, is April 2.
From the dais March 7, Mayor Danielle DiPaola apologized to those who were there to speak on the matter, including Ira E. Weiner of Montvale-based Beattie Padovano, who represents the Westwood residents.
For now, drive-thrus are a prohibited conditional use at eating and drinking places in the borough’s two retail commercial zones. It is understood that they are inappropriate in pedestrian zones such as the Central Business District.
The ordinance allowing the conditional use was found improper because public notice was not given to all those located in the zone or to property owners within 200 feet.
Residents noted with anger in February that the flawed ordinance allowed Starbucks in, at 322 Kinderkamack Road, with a drive-thru. Its neighbors complain of traffic hazards and street and yard litter.
Several residents who spoke at recent council public comment periods demanded to know how a defective ordinance was allowed to shape commerce and livability in “The Family Town.”
Borough Attorney John McCann said he didn’t know. He refers questions to former borough professionals and officials.
Starbucks, which separately had its own lawyers weigh in on the flawed ordinance, is not affected by Emerson’s pending drive-thru course correction. It also is not alleged to have done anything wrong, from an application perspective.
The change also will not affect banks, pharmacies, nor the town post office, which in any event is under federal jurisdiction.
In November 2018, nearly two months after the death of Leon Magnes, CEO of Wenesco Emerson LLC of Englewood Cliffs but with its attorneys fighting on, the company voluntarily and immediately withdrew its application for a Wendy’s at 411 Old Hook Road at Main Street.
Westwood resident PJ Sambogna told Pascack Press at the time, “We stopped [Wenesco] as of now putting in a fast food restaurant. We now have to have [Emerson] change the ordinance.”
Looking beyond Wendy’s Emerson’s new government corrected the drive-thru ordinance in February, with proper notifications as a required first step to overturning it. The votes were unanimous.
In its complaint, Beattie Padovano wrote in part, “Where there is more than one RC Zone, a change to allow one use in the Kinderkamack Road RC Zone can open up a Pandora’s Box for all the other RC Zones on which no one really focused. This might have happened with this ordinance.”