‘Somebody is going to get killed’: Bridgewater balks at Route 22 Starbucks plan

BRIDGEWATER – A proposal to build a Starbucks with a drive-thru on Route 22 hit a speed bump Tuesday when the Zoning Board of Adjustment raised concerns about vehicles waiting at the drive-thru possibly spilling onto the highway.

"I don't want people to die," Board Chairman Jeff Foose said at the meeting.

Starbucks has agreed to perform a "comprehensive redesign" of the site, said Henry Kent-Smith, attorney for Starbucks, that will "comprehensively address your concerns."

"Give us one last shot to come back," Kent-Smith said.

The Board's public hearing on the proposal will continue Nov. 12

The Board began hearing the proposal in March with much of the discussion focused on the traffic in and around the eastbound Route 22 site next to the former Houlihan's.

A use variance is required because a drive-thru restaurant is not permitted in the zone.

Board members had said they are concerned about traffic leaving the Starbucks on Route 22 then having to cross into the left lanes to get onto Interstate 287.

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The Board also raised questions about whether cars waiting at the drive-thru window would back up onto Route 22 causing a safety hazard.

Those questions reached a boiling point Tuesday when Foose told Kent-Smith "you guys blew it off" by not addressing the board's issues.

"This is a load of crap," Foose said, adding "somebody is going to get killed."

But Kent-Smith said that Starbucks "was very comfortable" with the plan it had presented.

Saying Starbucks is a national company, Kent-Smith said "we would be the first to be sued" if there were a fatality.

"You're just a national company that fired their CEO," Foose said, adding Starbucks' mobile app is "a s---tshow" after he read articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post.

"We want to approve this," Foose said. "We just want it to be safe."

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Starbucks had proposed two drive-thru lanes to accommodate 24 vehicles, the longest queue space of any Starbucks in New Jersey, with a system that would trigger signs saying the lanes are closed to traffic directly coming off Route 22.

That system, according to a traffic study prepared for Starbucks, will "serve as clear notification" to drivers to instead park and enter the building.

Carlos Cruz, a construction manager for Starbucks, told the Board on Tuesday that Starbucks has an average wait of 5.5 minutes from when an order is placed in the drive-thru to when it is ready.

Cruz also explained that Starbucks' mobile app has cut down on the number of drive-thru customers. Patrons who place orders through the app park and go into the building to get their orders.

Before the pandemic, three-quarters of Starbucks customers used the drive-thru, Cruz said. The mobile app has reduced the number of drive-thru customers by 40%, he said, and only 50% of the overall number of customers use the drive-thru.

But Foose raised doubts about Starbucks' plan to install the traffic signal closing the drive-thru lanes if the queue gets too long.

He said he went to Starbucks' location on Main Street in Madison, the only Starbucks in New Jersey with the traffic signal, at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday and discovered the signal wasn't working.

That prompted him to wonder about the possible consequences if the signal system proposed for the Route 22 location wasn't working.

Most of Starbucks' other 35 locations in New Jersey have room for vehicles waiting at the drive-thru window, including the one of Route 206 in Hillsborough, without the possibility of waiting vehicles on highways, Foose said.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: ‘Somebody is going to get killed’: Bridgewater balks at Route 22 Starbucks plan