A developer proposing a pharmacy and medical office at the corner of Elsmere and Delaware avenues was given plenty to think about after a meeting with the Town of Bethlehem Development Planning Committee Thursday, Nov. 19, where it was said that an ongoing study may change the site’s zoning and scuttle the project as presented.
Developer Tom Burke has been working with Community Care Physicians, located at 250 Delaware Ave., to affect an expansion of the medical offices that would also include an independent pharmacy. The two-story building with a roughly 23,000-square-foot footprint would sit at the location of a now-vacant building that housed a CVS before the chain built a new store across the street.
Both of the standing buildings would be demolished, but the Community Care offices would remain open during the construction of the new building then be leveled to make way for parking when the transition is complete.
Burke said that acquiring a new building is of great importance to the doctors practicing at Community Care. 250 Delaware was basically a temporary location for the doctors, who would like more space and more modern facilities that could hold specialized equipment.
The docs are in a space now that wasn’t made for them, said Burke. `This is driven by what the doctors said they wanted and needed.`
He said that the group has examined other location in town on Route 9 and in the Vista Technology Park. If the project at the corner of Delaware and Elsmere does not work out, the doctors will likely leave town in search of other accommodations, Burke said.
DPC members made several suggestions to the applicant and engineers, including ones involving traffic control and the parking lot design. The most important element of the discussion, however, was that the town’s ongoing Delaware Avenue study will likely suggest rezoning the parcel from commercial hamlet to hamlet, which carries restrictions that would derail the proposal in its current form.
`I think that [the study] is really focusing this towards hamlet design, and this is not hamlet design,` said Planning Board Chairman George Leveille.
Of particular note is that hamlet zoning prohibits parking directly in front of a store, which Burke said might very well be a deal breaker for the interested pharmacy.
Town Director of Economic Development and Planning Michael Morelli estimated that the Delaware Avenue study would be completed in early 2010. He also said that the proposed building would be too big for a hamlet zone without being broken up architecturally.
`The idea was really to try to avoid a boxy look in a hamlet zone,` he said.
The DPC is an advisory entity without any regulatory authority. Representatives of town offices gather to tell applicants what they are likely to expect during the approval process.
As proposed, the pharmacy/office plan would need to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals for a variance regarding the 195-space parking lot size and to the Planning Board for site plan approval.
Burke declined to say what pharmacy is interested in the location. The developer will take the comments made at the meeting back to the drawing board and may very well appear before the DPC at its December meeting with revisions. Burke is working with Infinigy Engineering and Surveying on the project.
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